Super Mario Galaxy 3
by Boss-defeater451
Summary: Bowser comes and kidnaps Peach again... Mario and Luigi follow... Yep, the ancient plot again. But who is Rich? And is Bowser just letting Mario come to him? Read in this story, that might just have one more plot in the background...
1. Prologue: The story before the story

Welcome to this fanfiction! I, Boss-slayer451, am the author of this story. This story is a fan sequel to SMG 2, a great game with a... too easy final boss. But that's something else. Let's just start with the prologue of the prologue.

Be warned though that I'm new with writing fanfictions, and as so, this story might not be the best you read. The main OC might act as a Gary Stu. Characters may act OOC. I'm Dutch, thus the English in this story might not be as good as well.

So short said, if you don't a want to read a story written by a newbie, read something else. If you do a read this however, review, so that the author may become better. The story is rated K+, because of some future boss battles... For more information about the story, check the author's page...

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anyone else that's from his series. Nintendo does, and I'm not related to them.

* * *

Let me tell you another story… A story, that began as a thank-you…

Once upon a century, a comet flies above the Mushroom Kingdom, causing stardust to fall. Just a few days ago, it was that time again. It came quite unexpected to the inhabitants of the world, but the Mushroom Kingdom managed to make a festival before it stopped. The inhabitants of other kingdoms, however, couldn't get fast enough there to experience it. Not that it was a big problem. They simply watched the festival on other ways, like television.

The beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach Toadstool, was also present at the festival. She had written Mario, the Mushroom Kingdom's main hero who had saved the Kingdom more than once, to come over to her castle to enjoy the festival and some cake.

However, a evil koopa king, named Bowser, and his very originally named son, Bowser Jr., had other plans for the festival. Wicked, evil plans. After weeks of preparation, their new master plan could finally start. The evil koopa king swallowed the grand star his son had found four weeks ago, and became a giant. Using his new length and strength, Bowser set off to attack a nearby galaxy, stealing all of the power and grand stars he could find, while leaving the galaxy in ruins and some habitants, which were star-like creatures called lumas, of the galaxy being captured in strange, crystal like glass. Some of those captured lumas fell to the Mushroom Kingdom, together with some of the non-captured ones.

Amused by the results of his new power, Bowser ordered his son to find the center of the universe, while he went to kidnap Princess Peach. He succeeded in this, but remained to thrash her castle and the surrounding town until Mario arrived, who was his arch-nemesis.

Mario in the meanwhile, left his home for the festival. He met a baby Luma, and befriended it quickly. With it, he continued his path to the castle. Upon nearing the castle, however, he mentioned Bowser, with in his hand… Princess Peach! Bowser left after a small and very evil monologue the world, going to the center of the universe. Mario followed him into space with the help of the Lumas, and agreed with their leader, Captain Lubba, to retrieve all power stars and grand stars, so that Lubba could use them as fuel for their space ship, in order to follow Bowser.

Mario collected most of the power stars, with help of the baby Luma, the Toad Brigade and Mario's younger brother, Luigi, the last two arriving later in the adventure. Mario met Bowser Jr. and even Bowser a few times, but both escaped after he defeated them in battle, leaving a grand star for Mario to pick up, which he would use to summon a portal to travel between the worlds. In the end, Mario confronted Bowser, and after a very hard battle, defeated him. Mario rescued princess Peach and returned the last grand star.

Returning on the space ship, the last grand star opened a portal, and out of it came a very large space observatory. The captain of that observatory was Rosalina, who was the adopted mother of the baby Luma. She thanked Mario for helping to retrieve most of the power stars, and the baby Luma returned to its mother. Rosalina didn't tell Mario however that her observatory was the comet that caused the stardust to fall on the Mushroom Kingdom…

Mario, Luigi, the Toad Brigade and Princess Peach were soon returned to the world. However, Mario, Luigi and the toad brigade decided to help Lubba to collect the last power stars, and returned to the spaceship. After retrieving them and the cosmic jewels, which had appeared after the last power star returned, the two bros and the toad brigade finally returned for real, and a large festival was held in the Mushroom Kingdom.

That was the end of the previous story, but yet the beginning of the next story…

* * *

And that was the prologue of the prologue! Anyway, if you, the reader, have read this chapter prologue, then you can surely offer up some time to review, not? Even flames are acceptable, though they will be doused with an ice flower… Anyway, review! And read the next chapter! It's a whole different than this one, because this chapter is more of a re-telling of the SMG 2. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	2. Prologue: The start of the start

And here is the second chapter! With the exception that Mario and Luigi don't have their accents, I don't have much to say, so let's just start the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else of his series. Nintendo does, and I'm not related to them.

* * *

"And so ends the saga of the cosmic jewels" A soft, feminine voice spoke. The owner of the voice was a woman, sitting in a luxury looking chair in a room that looked like a library. The woman had platinum-blond hair, of which one flip reached her back. A bang covered one of her light blue eyes. The woman wore a blue-like dress, with long sleeves. On her head was a silver crown, with red and green-blue jewels on it. She held a book in her hands, which she was closing now. Star-like creatures hovered around her, listening carefully to each of her words. While most of those creatures were yellow, there was also one that had a cream color. This one wore a red cap, with on the front a white oval with in the middle of it a red M.

The star-like creatures, better known as lumas, held a look of disappointment, as they realized that the story had ended. They made odd sounds, as if asking the woman, who was known as Rosalina, to tell them another story. She smiled a little at this, before saying:

"Sorry, but that was it for today." The lumas became even more disappointment, and even some of them started to cry sad sounds. Upon seeing this, Rosalina continued: "But tomorrow, I will tell you another story." Upon hearing this, the lumas became happy again, and exited the library-like room. One of them muttered something that sounded like 'good night'. Rosalina returned the good night, though it wasn't night. It also wasn't day. There was no sun around to make day, and there wasn't one to be away to make night. The only light came from the lamps on the observatory.

Once all of the lumas had left the room, Rosalina stood up from her seat, only to mention that a dark brown luma entered the room.

"Hi, Polari…" was all that Rosalina said. Polari was Rosalina's advisor and was also very protective of her. Because of that, he mentioned the next:

"Is something wrong? You look a bit worried…"

"No, not really. It's just… after that Mario returned my precious baby Luma and returned the power stars, I feel like I should do something in return… but I can't decide what." Rosalina replied with a sad look on her face.

"Is that all?" Polari asked while hovering next to her side. Rosalina simply nodded. "Well, in that case… You know how starbits fall to a planet while we are flying next to it?" Rosalina nodded again. Polari continued. "In the Mushroom Kingdom, where Mario lives, this also happens. The residents of the Kingdom hold, or so I'm told by the other Lumas, a star festival each time this happens. The last one, though… It got crushed by Bowser. So, what if we give them a new chance to celebrate it?" Polari asked. Rosalina took the suggestion in consideration for a few moments.

"That's a good idea…" Rosalina said after a while. "Maybe I should do it. It will take a week to get there, though… But I can visit my spot… So I do it. Polari, can you tell the other lumas that we…" Before Rosalina could finish the last sentence, Polari interrupted.

"Yes, I can." And with that, he flew out of the room. Rosalina decided to write a letter to the Mushroom Kingdom so they could prepare the festival.

* * *

Dear Mario

As a thank you for returning my baby to me and retrieving all of the power stars, I've decided to give the Mushroom Kingdom another chance to celebrate the star festival, hopefully now without that monster interrupting it. The stardust will fall over a week, so be sure to have the preparations ready then.

Best wishes,

Rosalina

* * *

"Another festival? Was the last party not enough?" A man in blue overalls and a green long-sleeve shirt. On his face was a brown smoothed moustache. He had light blue eyes, though a little bit darker than Rosalina's. He had brown hair, in a style that seemed to hint that the man usually wore a cap, but not now.

"Nope." Was another man's simple reply with a smile. This man looked almost exactly like the man in green, although he was in red, and his moustache was black. He also seemed to be a bit shorter and fatter. He had the same hairstyle of the man in green though.

Both men were accompanied with a cream luma. It seemed to wear a postman cap and also had a bag that you would see postman carry. It seemed to be waiting patiently near the two, in an area what seemed to be a rather humble home. The ceiling seemed to be the roof, and was made of wood. So was the floor. The walls were made of stone, however. In the center of the room was a wooden table with only one table-leg, which was in the middle of the table. It was standing on a carpet made of cotton. Near the table were also two small chairs, which were like the table, made of wood. There was also a doorway, leading to the bedroom and there was the main door to the house.

"But Mario, we had such big cake…" The green men spoke, but saw that Mario had already left the house, the hint of that being the main door that had been throw rude to the wall and was now open (and broken).

"Come on, Luigi! We gotta tell Peach about this!" Was the last thing that Mario had spoken within the reach they could hear him.

"Yesterday… No wonder he remains fat, despite all those adventures of him." Luigi muttered and sighed, before mentioning the luma to follow him and before starting to run in order to pursue Mario to Peach.

* * *

"So the stardust will fall again next week?" asked a lady at Mario and Luigi. She wore a long, pink dress, so long, it reached the floor. It didn't have sleeves, however, but instead she wore white gloves which nearly covers her whole arms. On the dress was a blue oval, with a form like a jewel. She also had long blond hair, not really light or dark blond. On her hair was a golden crown, with red and blue jewels on it. Her eyes were blue, like Luigi's and Mario's.

"So says the letter, princess Peach." Was Mario's answer. Besides Peach and Mario, there were also the luma and Luigi, and some odd, mushroom headed creatures in the room. The room looked like a main castle hall. The throne near Peach also hinted at this.

The mushroom headed creatures had a white hat with red spots, exactly the opposite of the traditional mushroom hat. They were rather short and looked quite young. They also wore brown shoes, a white diaper-like piece of clothing and a blue vest. They had no legs. These mushroom creatures were called toads.

However, there was one toad that looked differently from the others. His mushroom head was light brown with dark brown spots. He looked also very old, with his grey moustache and glasses. He wore a purple vest, but like the other toads he wore brown shoes and that diaper thing. In his hand was a wooden cane, with on top of it, a small dark brown with light brown spots mushroom. He was called Toadsworth, Peach's steward, who worried more about Peach than a mother would for her child.

"In that case…" Peach started, as if she was about to tell announcement. "we could celebrate the star festival again without troubles!" Toadsworth fell down when Peach finished her sentence, as if he just passed out. He quickly recovered, but with a face of terror.

"But Peach! Don't you know what happened last time? You got kidnapped! Don't you think that Bowser would try it again? We're not going to celebrate this with a chance of you being kidnapped again!" Toadsworth shouted through the hall, so hard that it shocked any human and toad in the room, and with the luma flying a few meters before falling on the ground. Luigi was (oddly enough) the first to recover from Toadsworth, and joined with him.

"Besides that, don't you think we celebrated a bit too much these days? We already had a big party yesterday! A break would be nice for once." Was luigi's argument. No wait, it wasn't. It was what he had said. But actually, he envied those parties because it was always about Mario. Yesterday, he didn't even get a mention! And he was the one that recovered most of the green stars! It was unfair, and while he still loved his brother in a brother way, he should have got that mention…

But Peach and Mario weren't going to stop this festival that fast. They were going to get their undisturbed mo… to celebrate this festival, no matter what!

"Ah, don't worry, Toadsworth." Mario was the first one to defend the festival. "Last time I saw Bowser, he wasn't higher than my legs! And he usually does a week planning a kidnap-Peach-plan, and with his height, he will probably not attack until next month." Toadsworth calmed down at this argument, and seemed to consider the festival. While he did so, Peach spoke.

"And it's good for our economics too. After all, I have received lots of letters and e-mails from people from all over the world that wanted to watch the festival too. They will sure come if we announce the festival… One of them was Princess Daisy, by the way." And the hidden bullet hit the target. Luigi blushed at the mention of Princess Daisy, his argument gone like it never was. Toadsworth, however, got worked up from this mention.

"That's even worse! Think of all those people! All of them could be a potential kidnapper! Oh, the horror of you being kidnapped again! I don't stand behind this! We're not going to hold the festival! We…" He got interrupted by Peach, who was going to end this discussion on a very democratic way…

"Toads, could you please bring Toadsworth to his room? I think he's overacting again…" Two toads nodded, and grabbed him by the shoulders, and dragged him away, with Toadsworth still shouting about how bad this festival would end.

"So, everyone…" Peach started to ask, only to be interrupted by Toadsworth (who was probably in his bedroom now) again.

"I'm not agreeing!"

"… that is currently in this room, agrees to hold the star festival?" Peach added, cutting Toadsworth out of the discussion.

"I guess we can hold a break another time…" was Luigi's response, while he was still blushing a bit.

"I agree so very much!" Was Mario's rather enthusiastic reply. All the toads that were still in the room simply nodded, and so did the luma (who was silent the whole time).

"OK! It's decided; Next week we will celebrate the star festival again!" Peach announced. Meanwhile, near the main door of the hall (Toadsworth got dragged out through another one, by the way).

"Ge ne ne ne… So lots of people will come? That forms the perfect moment to make my castle bigger!" A dark silhouette whispered. He was very fat and also quite small. If his legs were shorter, than he wouldn't have any legs.

"Hey! Why your castle? It's already bigger than this one and that dumb Koopa's one!" Another dark silhouette shouted soft. He was very large, unlike the other one. He was also skinny, and had twice the size length legs than a normal person would have. "Are you wanting to be renamed Scrooge McDuck, or what?"

"Shut up! We have some planning to do…" And with that, they left the castle.

* * *

And that was the first part of the prologue! The next part is a whole lot longer, but worth (I hope) the time reading. Review, please, so I may become better…


	3. The preparations for the preparations

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else of his series. Nintendo does, and I'm not related to them.

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 7**

* * *

After the very democratic decision of princess Peach, Mario and Luigi exited the castle, together with the luma. At the moment, they were walking through a small town, but with lots of life in it. Toads were busy with their daily routine, not aware of the future festival. Small toad children were playing around, playing tag for example, or were looking at the two brothers and their star-like companion. Girls found the luma cute, while the boys were bragging to each other that they would become at least as famous as the brothers. The adults were simply walking around, some taking life on their easiest, while others taking life on their hardest, trying to be on time for whatever thing they needed to be in time for.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Mario to the star creature.

"Mom said I should stay here until she arrives." Was the luma's answer. Luigi got a little bit confused upon this answer, because he knew that Rosalina was the adopted mother of the lumas, but he didn't know that Rosalina would come herself. After all, there was nothing written about it in the letter, was it?

Mario mentioned the slight confused face of his younger brother. He knew. He knew that Rosalina's observatory was the cause of the falling stardust. He knew that from his first galactic adventure. Nobody except him, Peach, Bowser and Rosalina remembered that adventure. After all, the whole universe got reborn. The words of Rosalina flew through his head;

"When stars die, they turn to stardust and scatter across the cosmos. Eventually, that stardust reforms to create a new star… And so the cycle of life continues. But the cycle never repeats itself in quite the same way… So… you'll see."

And so he did. The cycle repeated itself, a bit too much the same for his liking. He didn't expect that Bowser would again interrupt the star festival and kidnap Peach. The different way from last time was that Bowser was a giant and that he went through other galaxies to collect the power and grand stars. The cycle repeats, but with a small difference each time…

Mario's thoughts got interrupted when Luigi asked the luma another question. "And what are you planning to do in the meantime? Delivering other people's post?" Luigi was obviously talking about the postman-like outfit the luma wore.

"Nope! I only took this outfit because it suited my very important job, as mother called it, and because it looked fun!" was the lumas childish and happy answer.

"But until your mom arrives, what are you going to do?" Mario repeated the question.

"Sticking with you! You should know the stories about the heroic adventures of Mario of how he saved his special one more than once! This is my only chance to travel with my biggest idol and I'm not going to miss it!" The luma spoke with still the same enthusiastic tone. It flew from one spot to another around Luigi and Mario while answering.

"Are there any stories of me?" asked Luigi, a bit taken back from the luma's child-like behavior.

"And you are?" asked the luma, still in his happy mood. Luigi knew already the answer now because of luma's question, but answered anyway.

"Luigi, number one!" He tried to act heroic, hoping that his thoughts were wrong.

"Erm… Nope…" the luma answered, his happy mood broken that he had no happy answer for this green man. Luigi mentioned this, and said:

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault that there aren't any stories about me…" Luigi tried to cheer the luma again up.

"Ok!" said the luma, now again cheerful that he didn't need to worry. Mario knew his brother better, though. He looked to him and… yes, he was down. Mario felt sorry for him. He had done so much, helping and once even rescuing Mario, and yet… nobody knew him. Sure, there were a few fan girls of him, but not as much as Mario's whole fan army. The only reason Mario could think of was that Luigi was player 2 in video games about them, but he quickly shrugged the thought off. They weren't in a video game after all, were they?

"By the way, what happened to your cap?" Luma asked completely out of nowhere.

"A certain luma found our caps a rather good souvenir of our adventure…" answered Luigi, still down from being so unknown. His hand moved to his head, rubbing against his hair. He missed his cap. No, they, Luigi and Mario, missed their caps. They had been born with them! Or so their parents told them… Luigi didn't really believe them. For that to happen, they should have been brought by a stork, but everyone knew that was a lie told by parents to keep the truth secret. But anyway, they had had those caps for a long time. Luigi's cap was a green one, with a white oval in the front and in that oval a green L. Mario's cap was nearly the same as Luigi's, though in red and with a red M.

"Luigi?" Mario asked friendly, perhaps trying to cheer Luigi a bit. "Shall we go buy ourselves some new caps?"

"Where? I doubt any good clothing shop will have hats like our previous…" Upon saying that, Luigi got grabbed softly and was pointed to a shop called 'Mario bros. fan shop!' with as subtitle 'for all your heroic needs'. In sale were… Two hats exactly like the brothers' previous ones! Maybe needless to say, the shop got two hats less, but some coins richer. And it also got a fainted, Mario bros. fan, shopkeeper richer…

The luma (who got forced to go with them into the shop), Mario and Luigi walked out of the shop, when the last one said "This one feels exactly like the previous one! It's almost like they stole our previous hats while we were sleeping and made an exact replica of it!" Neither Mario, Luigi or the luma saw it, but another shopkeeper that had come to help the fainted one recover, had a nervous grin as Luigi said the last sentence…

"So, are we going to your house? Can I play some video games there? Please? Pretty please?" the luma asked very loud, fast, cheerful and out of nowhere, startling the bros. While recovering from the shock, they simply nodded, gaining a very happy reaction of the luma. They continued their path, and when they left the town, Mario asked:

"By the way, how old are you?"

The luma answered: "Well, I'm much older than the luma that accompanied you on your last story, and as such, I'm much more mature." While answering, the luma did as if he was some kind of professor. Some reporters passed them, moving to Peach's castle.

"And that's exactly…?" Mario continued with asking.

"One day older!" Mario rolled his eyes, while Luigi face-slapped himself in his mind. Children, these days… Almost as crazy as women.

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 6**

* * *

The first day had passed since the letter and Peach's international announce of the second star festival, and yet already every single hotel in the mushroom kingdom was completely full of tourists. Peach and Toadsworth (who, after the visit of a therapist and after some shock-therapy (very literal…) completely recovered from the previous day) were discussing this matter.

"Ten thousand already?" Toadworth screamed, shocking anyone who was in the castle. "That's ten thousand possible thieves or kidnappers!" Ok, maybe he hadn't completely recovered, but at least he had… a little bit.

"Yes." Peach sighed. There was lots of paperwork to do, or so you would think if you looked at the room where Peach, Toadsworth and lots of other toads were. The toads were carrying all kinds of important looking letters and papers, or were looking at them. The room itself was full of those papers, which hided what the room actually was. Though, if you looked at the U-shaped row of the papers and the various seats next to it, you would probably conclude that it was a meeting room.

"And what are we going to do about it?" Toadsworth asked, calmed down a bit. "We can't build new hotels; They take 2 weeks to finish. But if we announce that we can't contain any more tourists, we get less money from them… And princess Daisy also still needs a place to stay."

"The Daisy problem is already fixed. She's going to stay in one of the spare rooms in my castle." Peach replied, not really wanting to do all this paperwork anymore.

"But what about all the other tourists? We can't place them in the remaining spare rooms. It would cause a chaos, and they have a very good chance to kidnap you…" Toadsworth said. Peach got a bit annoyed at Toadsworth's mention of 'kidnapping'. That, and the stress of her work.

"I know, I know… I know we can't put them here, but we can't also place them simply on the fields near the town…" Peach didn't think much of what she said, but after a while, she realized that she just said the solution for this problem. "Wait! We can! We can put them on the fields near the town! As long they bring a tent or a camper, they can stay there!"

"That's indeed a good idea, princess. I compliment you for the idea." Toadsworth replied. Both continued with their work after that, until Toadsworth found a special list. "Princess Peach? I think I've found a special list."

"Really? What kind of list?" Peach asked, while walking towards Toadsworth to view at the list. Some toads gathered near Toadsworth as well.

"Well, on it is written all different species that are staying for the star festival. Not only that, but also how many of each species there are." Toadsworth answered. The toads that had gathered, returned to their workspot, because that didn't really interest them much.

"Can you read it aloud? I'm still needing to look over other things…" Peach asked as she as well returned to where she had been working for the day. Toadsworth nodded, and started reading…

"Goombas: 2,250. Toads: 3,000. Koopas: 2,250. Yoshis: 500. Beanish: 1999. Humans… Humans?" Toadsworth stopped for a moment. Humans were rather rare in this world. And most of them lived in the Mushroom Kingdom, with the exception of princess Daisy and Rosalina. The first one lived in Sarasaland, the second one in space.

Upon the mention of the word 'humans', most of the toads and Peach turned to Toadsworth. He continued when he saw that everyone was looking at him. "Humans: … one." He mentioned that after the one was a star like symbol, usually indicating that there was more about something. He looked at the bottom of the list. Indeed, after the star was something written. Toadsworth read this aloud, for everyone to hear in the room. "Human is the winner of the World Culture Lottery. The lottery will be held on…" Toadsworth stopped, looking for a moment at his watch, and then looking back at the list. "the day after tomorrow…"

Everyone stared at Toadsworth with big eyes. Nobody had heard of a 'World Culture Lottery.' There was no organization that was for the whole world. Well, there was once a try to make some kind of world organization, but… it didn't end so well for the people that wanted to make the organization when they visited Bowser… They had to spent quite a long time in the hospital, in order to be treated for their burns… In any case, there wasn't such organization that was spread over the world.

After some discussions, Peach, Toadsworth and the toads decided to ignore it. A tourist is a tourist, even if he's such rare species. And the 'World Culture Lottery' was probably some new organization in a distant country that in order to celebrate its start, held this lottery. All the toads went back to work, but Peach and Toadsworth started talking to each other about something else.

"You know, I'm not really comfortable with Bowser. Master Mario might have said that Bowser is tiny and all that stuff, but still…" Toadsworth said with a worried look on his face.

"Don't worry." Peach gently replied. "I've send some toads to keep an eye on him."

"And those are…?" Toadsworth asked, while both him and Peach started once again with their paperwork.

"The toad brigade."

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 5**

* * *

"Okay, and how… did we end up… in this mess again?" asked a shivering toad, that almost looked like any other toad, if it wasn't for his headlamp and red vest. With him were other toads, who all had different colors. One was blue and wore glasses, another one green, yet another one purple and the last one was yellow. The yellow toad seemed to sleep, which was rather remarkable as the five toads were in a nightmarish landscape. The lands were dark, barren and hot. The hotness came from lava flowing over the lands, the fires from it being the only things that lightened the area. There were no trees or plants at all, which was not helping to let the lands look less scary. On the horizon was a big, dark castle, with on it a head that looked like some kind of dragon with horns. In short, if you were looking for a calm, peaceful, beautiful and not harmless vacation spot, then you should absolutely go here! … or maybe not.

"Well, it's because we decided to accept the offer of become the royal guards of princess Peach, and because the only main attacker is Bowser, she decided to let us guard her from him… by placing us here." Was the purple toad's answer.

"Better said, we got the job most children would dream of… we became spies." Was the green toad's reaction.

"No, in order to become spies, we would have needed to train for years, we would have undergone medical checks and lot of more things which we would have probably failed at…" was the blue toad's correction.

"Zzz…" were the yellow toad's words of wisdom… erm, sleepiness.

"Thus so we did… If I had known… this beforehand, than… I would have never signed up. In truth, I would… never go… to this kind of place… willingly." The red toad was still shivering, a scared look on his face. While he was the self-appointed captain of this group of toads that called themselves the toad brigade, he was probably the most cowardly of them.

"But you would have done it if this was a paradise... and then probably slack off and forgetting the job…" The green toad muttered softly, but loud enough for the captain to hear it.

"What… was… that?" The captain tried to be intimidating, but he was more scared than that he did scare. The other toads became silent anyway. In the middle of nowhere, it was probably better to not quarrel and so they didn't. They decided to walk farther, towards their destination: the scary castle at the horizon. They had to drag the yellow toad with them, leaving the green toad questioning:

"Why couldn't we leave him simply at home? He sleeps all the time anyway, and he's rather heavy as well…"

"Well…" The blue toad started. The captain sighed. He had heard the reason already, and he still didn't understand it. At least the explanation would distract him from the scary area. "Because of Yellow toad's daily schemes, I started researching on why he's holding onto it. I couldn't find a good solution to this sleeping problem, until I started to research the origins of our species, the Agaricus bisporus, and discovered that their activity is usually in the night. So, to my theory is that evolution took another way for him, or that his genes mutated into those of the past." All the toads looked with confused faces at him, before the purple one asked:

"And this means that we need to carry Yellow Toad because of…?"

"Simple, in order to prove my theory. If its correct, we have discovered the perfect night guard while we are sleeping." Was the blue toad's rather simple answer.

"But he was asleep while Peach ordered us to do this! How will he know it and not freak out?" The green Toad asked.

"I've written a letter for him, detailing every single thing he needs to know. There's absolutely nothing I've forgotten to write down." The blue toad answered.

"Including… that… he's got… a job… as… a royal guard?" The captain asked. The blue toad's eyes widened when the captain asked.

"I knew I forgot something…" Upon this reaction of the blue toad, all others (even the yellow's ones somehow) rolled their eyes. They continued their way to the castle, the captain informing the others of their mission again. He wasn't shivering anymore for some reason, but the hint of fear was still on his face.

"Gentletoads, we are nearing Bowser's castle. Remember, we may not tell anything of the star festival to anyone, especially Bowser…"

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 4**

* * *

"Is it finally time, Kamek?" A rather impatient, but also small, monster asked. The monster looked like a turtle, but not completely. First, he was standing on two legs instead of four. Second, his shell had very large (for his size) spikes on it. Third, he had red hair, but it was not very long. Fourth, he had spikes on his head (though those are called horns) and his tail as well. Last but not least, his head looked more of that of a dragon rather than one of a turtle. The turtle-monster had a yellow skin and a green shell, by the way.

"Yes, oh great Bowser, king of the Koopas, it's finally midnight." A rather odd looking figure said. His whole body was covered with a blue cloak, that looked like a wizard's costume, including the hat part. The only part of his body that wasn't covered by the cloak, was his face, but most of that was covered by a old men's looking large glasses. The part that wasn't covered by either the cloak or the glasses, was his mouth that looked like one of a turtele and part of his forehead, both of these showing that the mysterious figure had a yellow skin like Bowser. In his hands were both an odd looking book and some kind of metal stick that looked like a wand, thanks to the red jewel at the top of it.

Both of them were in a not so odd looking room. That is, if you don't find either the mysterious caldrons, the library like shelves with lots of books on them, the chairs that looked royal, one named by the way 'Kidnapping babies for dummies and wizards', or just the simple dark mood that this room gave, odd. The dark mood could be explained with the fact that it was night, or so the full moon that shined through the window hinted. In that same window, a rather odd looking oval that was white with yellow spots could be seen. But that's beside the point. The room was one that simply fitted the word 'evil.'

"Then make it quick. I don't wanna to be smaller than my own children! What's the whole point of midnight while it's full moon anyway?" Bowser asked a bit annoyed. Kamek started waving with his wand.

"That's because that we need the might of the moon to counter the power of a grand star. But now to make you bigger once again, oh great king." Kamek answered while waving his wand faster and faster. Then he took a broomstick that was in a corner, flew despite the laws of gravity with the broomstick over Bowser, and dark looking dust fell on him. The colors of Bowser changed, as if magic was transforming him. He started to grow and grow, until he was a lot bigger than Kamek. Kamek then flew back to the ground.

"Ah, it's great to be my own size again! How did I turn so small again, Kamek?" Kamek sighed for a moment. Bowser had asked for this already ten times, and it was all to get Kamek say something insulting, so he had a reason to fire-breathe him. However, because Bowser was so small, his breathe was very easy to dodge. But now he was big again… Maybe if Kamek was careful, he could prevent that Bowser would attack him…

"Oh so great Bowser, it all happened when the wretched plumber managed to outsmart you and…"

"Blaargh!" Was the sound of a fire breathing Bowser, and a roasting magician. "Don't you dare to insult me!" Bowser shouted loud, looking angry. But if one looked closer at his eyes, they could see the glint of enjoyment.

The roasted Kamek had made his first fail. He corrected himself and continued. "Played very unfair and managed to smack the grand star out of you, making you smaller again and sending you plummeting into the warp hole. When you got out and ate the grand star again, you became a giant again. However, due the lack of a smart attack strategy on your side…"

"Blaargh!" Was yet the sound again of a fire-breathing Bowser and a roasting wizard. Kamek had made a mistake again. He corrected himself again and continued.

"Due the unfairness of Mario's attacks, he smacked the grand star again out of you. Because the grand star was in you for a very short time and it had yet to mingle with you again, it took a bit of your giantness and made you very small, smaller than normal. I had warned you from the beginning not to eat the grand star and to get it smacked out of you in such short period..."

"Blaargh!" You probably should know the sound by now. Bowser was amused that his attacks managed to fry Kamek three times, hinting that his full power was back to him.

"Gwahahaha! I'm my old self again! Now let's go preparing another evil mastermind plan! How quicker, how more chance we have to surprise that dumb plumber!" Bowser laughed loud, and wanted to exit the room. However, out of the only doorway came, just as Bowser wanted to open it, an also odd looking figure. The figure looked like Kamek, except the cloak was purple, that it didn't go over the head and instead, the figure wore an actual purple hat. The creature also had long grey hair, and looked overall feminine.

"Blaargh!" This time the new figure got fried. "Old hag! Don't open the door when I'm wanting to do it! You almost shocked me, though that's not possible, but still!" Old Hag dusted the black ash of her, something that Kamek had forgotten until now. He did so quickly.

"Sorry your hot-headedness, but this is important! Some guards spotted spies on the road to the castle!" Old Hag said. This captured Bowser's interest and calmed him down as well.

"Spies, you say? Kammy, tell me more…" Wait a second. Old Hag is named Kammy and not Old Hag? … Erm, what I was writing was that the white oval with yellow spots in the window seemed to move a bit, as if terrified of something.

"Yes sir, spies from the Mushroom Kingdom!" Old… Kammy replied. Kamek yawned because of the late hour. Despite that, he walked to a shelf and picked out a book, called: 'Anti-fire spells for fried koopas.' He took a seat and started reading.

"From the Mushroom Kingdom? They don't do such things, except when something important will happen..." Bowser replied while thinking. He stood in a typical think stance, with one of his hands to his chin, his eyes closed and his foot stomping a bit.

"And indeed something will happen! They are going to hold the star festival again!" Kammy shouted, breaking Kamek's concentration to his book. His head moved up, looking to Kammy and Bowser.

"But that's not possible! The star festival is once a century, changing a few days each century!" Kamek shouted.

"Well, apparently it is, according to the toads." Kammy replied.

"According to the toads? Don't you know you shouldn't talk directly to spies? They will lie for sure about such important things!" Bowser shouted angry, preparing another fire-breath. Kammy jumped back in terror, stuttering as she replied:

"I… didn't… talk… to… them. Nobody… did. Guards… overheard… what… they… were… saying." Bowser calmed down a bit with this sentence, giving Kammy the chance to recover. After she did, she continued. "The guards heard preciously what they said. In fact, I can quote exactly what the toads said, thanks to them."

"And that is?" Bowser asked friendly, well, friendly as far as he could go.

"_Gentletoads, we are nearing Bowser's castle. Remember, we may not tell anything of the star festival to anyone, especially Bowser, his children, or any of his minions. We may also not tell that we are spying them in order to prevent them from surprising and attacking us at the festival. That nearly the whole world is coming should also stay a secret. But what should remain the biggest secret is that the Mushroom Kingdom is not expecting any attack after the last galaxy adventure, because if Bowser learns of that, he will surely attack the festival, and that's the last thing we want. So, remember all of this, and we should do fine on this job." _Kammy coughed after saying all of this, while Bowser and Kamek sweat-dropped anime-style. The oval with yellow spots seemed to face-slap himself…

"You weren't lying when you said you could quote exactly what the toads said…" Kamek muttered, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

"So… And what did you do with the toads?" Bowser asked.

"Our soldiers are searching for them right as we are…" Kammy tried to answer, when she was interrupted by the door, that got thrown rude open. Creatures that looked like a turtle, but that were standing on two legs, had a green American football helmet and normal hammers, walked into the room with a lot of pride.

"Sir Bowser! We have captured four enemy spies that entered our territory!" One that looked like a leader with his bigger size, said with pride, while the others threw four toads (one red, one blue, one purple and one green) of the toad brigade into the room. Each of them was bound with ropes.

"Excellent! Though, I have one thing to say to you hammer bros…" Bowser said, while walking up to the hammer bros. These got nervous from this, knowing that Bowser was known as hot-headed.

"There's no reason to break the door when entering a room!" Bowser shouted hard while breathing fire at the bros, frying them like a turtle in a turtle-soup. When he was finished, he walked up to the four toads. The purple and green one were shivering with fear, the red one was shivering even harder than the previous two (though he looked like a leader with his headlamp) and the blue one… the final one... He was busy with mathematics, in order to find the perfect way to unwrap himself. Despite the oddness of the last one, Bowser laughed at them like a villain would do to their captives.

"Gwahahahaha! And you thought you could simply spy on me, the great Koopa king! Gwahaha!"

"We're… not… telling… you… anything!" The green toad replied bravely but yet with fear.

"Oh, you already did…" Bowser replied matter-of-factly.

"We… did?" The purple toad asked.

"Yes, you did…" Kammy chuckled, before telling them the whole quote again. She coughed afterwards, and all others in the room sweat-dropped, with the exception of Bowser and Kamek.

"We… have… a… fifth… toad! He… will… report… this… to… the… princess!" The red toad said, trying to be courageous but failing at this a bit. Bowser ignored that simply, while shouting.

" Ha! And you authors thought I was a dumb, comic relief villain! What do you have to say upon my excellent capture of the toad brigade?" Bowser laughed aloud, before the whole wall before him collapsed. He shrieked as he jumped back from the wall. When the whole wall was down, the white oval white yellow spots revealed to be… the yellow toad.

"I believe he broke the fourth wall literally with that sentence…" One of the hammer bros said to the others. Bowser simply looked angry at them to silence them, before ordering them to capture the yellow toad.

"Run, yellow!" The red, green and purple toad shouted, but the blue one looked as if the yellow toad was already captured. The yellow toad ran away, so fast that nobody could even get near him, if it wasn't for the fact that he fell asleep while running. While the hammer bros carried all toads away, Bowser laughed loud, before telling Kamek:

"Kamek, tell my children to prepare themselves for a big kidnapping… With their 'big' dad! Gwahahaha!" Bowser laughed, while both Kammy and Kamek moved out of the room, muttering to each other:

"He's going to steal again the power stars and grand stars, isn't he?" Kammy started

"Yes, but he will probably attempt to kidnap everyone at the festival, including Mario and Luigi… No human or whatever species will escape!" With that, both laughed evilly while moving to one of the other rooms in the castle…

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 3**

* * *

While toad town was very busy preparing for the star festival, one human walked through the streets. Its short brown hair was a big mess, and apparently still long enough for the wind to blow through it. The human, seeming to be a male, wore a dark yellow sweater and jeans. A dark blue digital watch was on his left arm. His brown shoes made sounds as they stepped on the stone road, but you could only hear it when you were close enough and focused on the sounds. The male himself seemed to be around fifteen-sixteen years old. However, the most noticeable of the boy was the large brown suitcase he was hauling after him, apparently not strong enough to carry it, or tired from his quite long journey. His brown eyes looked around himself.

"What are those… mushroom-heads?" The boy muttered, his eyes giving away that he was nervous of all the strange creatures around him. "And isn't that a dinosaur?" the boy looked straight at a green creature, which had the same form as a raptor, though a bit smaller and a whole lot less scary. It looked rather friendly, talking to one of the mushroom-heads. "Where are all the humans? I only see those mushroom-heads, the dinosaur and koopas…"

The boy thought about what he had heard before he came here. "Don't worry about all the odd creatures you will see there. They are all friendly…" Yeah, sure. If they were indeed friendly, why did the people that guided him to this… place, not come along with him? Now he was walking around in a town full of those odd mushroom-heads, that looked at him as if he would rob them any moment or save them from any kind of disaster. Why, that was a question the boy wanted an answer to. He wouldn't do either of them anyway; he was way and way too nice to even consider to rob them, and saving them from a disaster… That was out of question.

The boy finally entered a building, that looked like some four-star hotel. To his terror, the receptionist was a mushroom-head as well. It, and probably he, didn't gave him the odd stare all the others gave him. Instead, it gave a friendly smile like any other receptionist would do. This calmed the boy down a bit.

"Erm…" The boy didn't know what to say, maybe due some of his left nervosity, or maybe due his rather shy nature. Lucky enough for the boy, the receptionist simply asked, while still holding the receptionist smile:

"Have you reserved a room?" Of course he had. The only room left in this hotel was for the human that won the 'World Culture Lottery.' He was yesterday informed of who this human was, and this boy fitted the description perfectly. The receptionist only needed to know his name to be sure that this was indeed the human.

"Well… Not exactly, but I won a lottery and…" The boy started, but the receptionist interrupted him.

"Yes, I know. I only need to know your name, and you get your room."

"Rich Bosman, sir…" The boy replied, wondering if this mushroom creature was indeed a 'sir', and not something else because of his different species.

"Yep, that name is on the list. Could you follow me to your room?" The receptionist asked Rich, who followed the mushroom-head to Rich's room. On the way, Rich asked one question.

"Erm… Sorry that I ask, but what kind of species are you?" The receptionist hold his smile, but in his mind, he was alarmed. How did the human not know that he was a toad? 'Maybe…" the toad thought, but he couldn't remember what the 'maybe' was. Instead, he simply answered the question

"I'm called a toad, and… here's your room!" Toad added the last part of the sentence as he opened a door. Rich walked into it, finding the room looking quite comfortable. There was a bed, a night-table, a cupboard where he could store clothes, a television (though it was an old one) and some seats in front of the television. Rich thanked the toad, and placed his suitcase next to the bed.

"Never would have thought they would mean this literally with 'a journey to a new world!'" Rich muttered to himself, before opening the suitcase. It held almost no clothes, but it hold several other things, like a DS and video games. There was also a camera, which Rich hadn't used on his way to here due the heavy suitcase, which Rich didn't want to carry for a too long time.

After having everything prepared for his stay, Rich sat on his bed, mentioning a folder on the night table. A quick scan with his eyes learned Rich that on it was the program for the star festival, including special events before the star festival itself.

"Mweh, I can look later on it..." Rich muttered, before taking the DS and playing a video game on it. However, if Rich had looked a bit longer on the folder, he would have seen two figures on the left bottom corner, with above them the text: 'Wanted for treasure stealing and robbing…" One looked fat, the other skinny…

* * *

**Days until the Star Festival: 2**

* * *

"Argh! I can't believe Wario left me outside!" The large and skinny dark silhouette from Peach's castle shouted to nobody in particular. This time though, he wasn't dark, revealing that he wore black overalls with a purple undershirt beneath it. The figure had orange elf-like shoes. His eyes had the color of… the color of… only had the pupils. His mustache was a very odd one, moving very horizontal from his pink witch-like nose, then making a ninety degree rotation upwards, making his mustache look in the end as a L. This L (though upwards down) was also on his cap, which looked like Mario's and Luigi's, but in purple and with the turned around L instead of the M and the normal L.

The figure was standing near what seemed to be a very big castle. A passer-by would think of it as the palace of a king, but the owner of the castle was actually not somebody royal. The castle reached nearly the clouds, and was very big in every way you looked at it. However, something that wasn't big about the castle was the amount of windows. There were absolutely no windows everywhere, and the main door was very small. The owner seemed to dislike intruders and wanted to give them no chance to get even near the treasure that this castle holds. The castle was surrounded by a thick forest, with no path from the castle into it. People that wanted to find the castle but didn't know its location, would get lost for sure.

The main door suddenly opened. The other dark and fat silhouette from Peach's castle appeared, but he was as well not dark anymore. He wore a purple overalls with a yellow undershirt beneath. His shoes were a bit like the purple person, but less pointy at the end, smaller and green. His nose looked like a typical fun nose, only without the glasses. The mustache looked like two W's linked with each other at each side of the nose. His chin was an odd one as well, looking as if he had two chins instead of one. His eyes had only pupils, like Waluigi. The cap he wore was the same as the other caps, only in yellow and a W.

"Why Wario, why may I not enter your castle?" the purple figure asked.

"I know you Waluigi. You would touch one of my treasures, if you don't go as far as stealing it!" Wario replied annoyed. It was worse enough that Waluigi knew where the castle was, but to let him enter? No, never in his whole life would he allow that to happen.

"But to let me wait here, with all the animals in the woods… Don't ya think that's a bit cruel?" Waluigi responded as if he was moaning.

"Says who?" Wario shot back. Waluigi jumped back in surprise, and remained silent, not knowing what for nasty thing to say upon that. Wario continued. "Besides, all the forest animals have left since I started building the castle here… They surely left because they couldn't handle the awesomeness of me." Wario stood with pride.

"That, or you scared them away with your garlic diet." Waluigi muttered softly, but just loud enough for Wario to hear. Wario immediately punched Waluigi, who got hit and shoot into a nearby tree. Wario walked towards him, his fist in the air to prevent another remark of Waluigi.

"Anyway, we don't have the time to talk about this. The festival is at the day after tomorrow, and we still got lots of things to do…" Wario said evilly, grinning at the new treasure he would get soon…

"What kind of things? We simply go there, distract a person, steal his money, do the same thing over again, and after the star festival, we return to our normal house, share the money…" _'probably 10/90 for him'_, Waluigi thought. "and we're finished."

"If things were just that simple…" Wario muttered, confusing Waluigi. "You see, that was the original plan. But…" Wario hold up a folder, and pointed to bottom left corner. In that corner were two figures that were them, with a wanted above. "They will simply recognize us if we go normal there. No, we have to find a disguise…"

"That fits you…" Waluigi added.

"And YOU…" Wario replied back angry, before calming down and continuing normally. "so we can infiltrate the festival."

"But where can we find some good costumes?" Waluigi asked, before mentioning the grin on Wario's face. "You… already found one?" Wario took out a costume… but suddenly the clouds covered the sun, making it in the forest so dark, that the form of the costume couldn't be seen. After Wario put the costume back to where he got it from, the clouds moved away from the sun, making it again light in the forest.

"I'm not wearing that!" Waluigi shouted.

"You have to! It's the only costume that fits both of us!" Wario replied.

"Still not doing it!"

"I give you twenty percent of the money we get!"

"Make it sixty and we have a deal."

"Thirty!"

"Fifty!"

"Forty!"

"Fine!" Waluigi finally accepted. "Though I don't see how we can actually steal this way!"

"Oh, you see…" Wario grinned evily. Together, they walked into the forest, thinking about how rich they will get after the festival… How much money they would get… Maybe they would steal as much money as a princess gets in a year…

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 1**

* * *

A large crowd of toads had appeared near Peach's castle. But they weren't the only creatures near it. Goombas, koopas, yoshis, beanish, a human…

Goombas are creatures that look like the hat of a mushroom, though that is only their head yet. They have a small part of body beneath it, but it only serves as a connection to the feet and the head, having no arms at all. They also seem to have two big teeth pointing upwards, but not all of them have the same length of teeth. Most of the goombas that were in the crowd had red heads, though one had a pink one.

Koopas are the creatures that look like turtles, walking on two feet. They look very much like the hammer bros, but then without the helmet and the hammers. The front of the shell on the belly also looked more like one of a turtle, instead of the hammer bros' t-shirt-like clothing on their belly. The koopas that were now present on the festival had green, red and blue shells, though the last color was uncommon.

Yoshis, also known as dinosaurs by a few, are creatures that look a bit like raptors, minus the sharpy teeth and pointy head. Instead, they seem to have no teeth at all, and their face is round, with two eyes sticking above the hat. On their back is a red bubble-like thing, looking very comfy to sit on. They all wear brown shoes. The creatures can be any kind of color, but the most popular one is the green one.

Beanish are creatures that are human-like, though their skin is green and their hats look like… beans.

And finally a human… Well, you know that one.

On a balcony of Peach's castle, was Peach herself, Mario, the luma, Toadsworth and a few other toads. Luigi was standing in the garden in front of Peach's castle. All the people looked up to the sky, as if something was bound to happen…

And so something did. Behind some clouds, a large airplane appeared. The loud sound caused some to cover their ears. The plane flew over the crowd, Peach's castle, before… A human jumped out of it! This caused the crowd to panic, not wanting to see someone dying right before their eyes. Lucky enough, the human opened a parachute that looked like an orange flower, landing in the end softly on the ground, but the parachute landed on her. Luigi quickly came to help the human throw off the parachute.

Once the parachute had been taken off, all could see the human, who was a girl. She had orange hair, just beyond her shoulders. Like Mario, Luigi and Peach, she had blue eyes. Her golden crown hinted that she was of royally, but her clothes… they hinted that she was a sportswoman. She wore a orange shorts, and an orange sleeveless shirt. On that shirt was a blue jewel, with surrounding white forms that, with the jewel, looked like a flower. She wore orange shoes with white socks. On her back was also an orange backpack, used to store the parachute in.

The girl, along with Luigi, walked into the castle. Upon seeing this, the crowd walked away. In the castle itself, Peach walked towards the girl.

"Daisy, what was going on in your head?" Peach asked a bit unfriendly.

"Also nice to see you again, Peach." Daisy simply replied with a smile. This threw Peach back a bit, realizing how she had reacted, or better said, overreacted.

"Sorry, Daisy. But I thought the plane was only going to fly above the castle and then land on the airfield…" Peach said.

"It still did. After all, I can't land safely with two suitcases, can I?" Daisy stated matter-of-factly.

"You know what Peach meant, Daisy." Mario said, who had just appeared on the scene. The luma wasn't around him, for some reason.

"What? I told you I would do a surprise. Just landing on the air field and then walking all the way here and then doing some formal things seemed boring to me, so that's why I did this." Daisy replied.

"But couldn't you tell us at least beforehand?" Peach asked.

"I actually wanted to, but knowing how you would react, I decided against it." Daisy answered. Peach let out a sigh, before saying:

"Well, welcome back, Daisy." Peach said. "Should I order a toad to bring you to your room?"

"Nah, I need my suitcases first." Daisy answered.

"Well, then I shall leave you here. I still have lots of things to do for tomorrow. Mario, could you come with me?" Peach asked. Mario nodded, and followed Peach out of the room, leaving Luigi and Daisy behind.

"Well, erm… Hello back?" Luigi said a bit shy.

"Erm… Hello." Daisy said a bit shy as well. "Erm… question. What were you doing outside, without Mario and Peach?"

"I was there in order to prevent any kind of trouble." Luigi replied, still shy.

"Oh…" Daisy said, and so continued the awkward talk between the two. So instead, let's move on to Mario and Peach.

Mario and Peach were crossing several rooms, before Peach mentioned Mario to stop. Mario did so immediately, looking at Peach.

"Well… Mario, can you come tomorrow to my castle to enjoy some cake?" Peach asked, before continuing. "Normally, I would ask you with a letter, but some people are thinking my letters bring bad luck."

"Erm… Sure, Peach." Mario replied, not with his usual enthusiastic mood, but with a bit of shyness… After that, the two continued their way, looking forward to what the next day would bring…

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 0**

* * *

But that day is for the next chapter. So go on, and read it! And review, of course.


	4. Prologue: The beginning of the beginning

And here is chapter four! I'm starting to suggest music from now on, but you're not forced to do it.

Disclaimer: ... You can read it at chapter 1, 2 and 3. I'm not rewriting it again...

* * *

**Days until the star festival: 0

* * *

**

_Music: Star Festival (SMG)_

As midday struck on the day, all could see the comet that was in the sky. This comet, in truth the comet observatory of Rosalina, was flying over the Mushroom Kingdom, flying straight at one point, but none in the kingdom knew where this point was.

Like all other times the comet visited the Mushroom Kingdom, the stardust fell on toad town. Star bits, crystal like comets, which formed the stardust together, were all around the area, but nobody collected them yet. It was breakfast and as such, most people were eating.

As time moved on, smaller children of all kind of species appeared on the streets, attempting to collect as many star bits as they could. Parents' watched them from a distance, making sure that the children didn't end up in a fight with each other over the star bits. In dark, thin alleys, teenagers appeared. It was notable that they were always in couples, one boy, one girl. The boy would give the girl a star bit, earning a kiss on the cheek. This, however, saddened one other teenager…

"Sigh…" Rich, in the same outfit as three days ago, sighed, walking with a backpack towards Peach's castle. He got jealous at the sight of the new couples that came into existence, but also sad. Though, he still continued his path, thinking about taking one yellow star bit as a souvenir. He attempted to collect some, but it was always the case that another boy appeared, took the star bit Rich wanted, and moved with a girl into one of the many dark alleys. This saddened him even more. So much, that he forgot that he was surrounded by all those odd creatures.

Before yesterday, he thought he was the only human in this… this… land, because he had only seen those creatures. He had studied a bit about them. That mushroom thing was a goomba. That one a toad. That raptor thing a yoshi, though Rich still preferred calling it a dinosaur. How was it actually possible for an extinct animal like the dinosaur to be still alive?

But besides that, he got a huge surprise yesterday. He saw not one, not two, but four humans near that big castle! And two of them were princesses! He had never thought he would see one for real in his whole life, but yesterday he saw two. Well, according to the folder. The princess that had jumped out of the airplane (which had shocked Rich a bit, just like the other people in the crowd), didn't look much like one. But that was probably him thinking wrong. The other two were males looked like normal ones, but because they were near the princesses, they probably weren't.

Rich had considered for a very, very, very, very, very… (we're skipping hundred pages…) very little moment to walk up to them, but what kind of dumb person would casually walk up to TWO PRINCESSES AND TWO OTHER IMPORTANT PEOPLE, saying: "Hey, I see you're human as well. Can you explain more about the lack of humans in this place?" That would be the dumbest thing to do in the universe! That, and Rich wasn't the person that would walk to strangers anyway. He was way too shy to do that, and also distrusted strangers a bit.

Anyway, Rich continued with the 'naming' of the creatures, in order to cheer himself up with his knowledge. He didn't look much into the alleys anymore so that he wouldn't get sad again, but in one something quite funny happened. Two goombas, a girl one with some archaeology-like hat and a blond ponytail, had bonked into a boy goomba, the girl apparently not charmed by the gift. While Rich knew he should feel bad for the boy and while he actually did, he couldn't hold back a small grin. Next time, that boy should think twice about who to ask out… Rich followed his path to the castle, planning to play video games there until the evening… Hopefully he could get a yellow star bit by then.

On his way to the castle, Rich passed a rather odd donkey. This donkey had very odd forelegs. They were very little, but with a huge fat body above it, that should actually be still the forelegs. Then you had the very large hind legs and thin body between the forelegs and the hind legs. The tail looked like it was attached to the donkey with a nail… Rich looked at it for a second, before concluding that it was a costume and continuing to the castle. However, there was something in the donkey… or better said, were.

"I still don't get why I'm in the back!" A voice shouted from out the donkey. People gave it an odd stare, before figuring out that it was a costume. Then they simply continued their ways.

"Shut up! We can't afford somebody recognizing your voice!" another voice replied.

"Fine! But I still want an answer Wario!" the first voice responded.

"Waluigi, with your length you're the only one that fits both the legs and the body!" Wario explained.

"But do you know how *CENSORED* pain this does, walking curved in a ninety degree rotation!" Waluigi shouted very, very hard. Most parents had quickly laid their hands on their children's ears, so they wouldn't hear the word that was censured.

"That's as a pay-back for yesterday!" Wario replied back.

"What? I only said you should go on a diet without garlics in it! Most people recognize the scent, so they would recognize you when smelling it!" Waluigi responded, only earning Wario stopping, so that Waluigi crashed into him.

"Hey! What was that good for?" Waluigi asked while groaning from the pain.

"Don't talk about my very specific food diets! It's not your business!" Wario replied furious. Waluigi got terrified by that.

"Fine, fine. But you gotta tell me: How are we supposed to…" Waluigi started, only to be interrupted by Wario.

"Shush. We can't let anyone hear us talking about that! But to answer your question… Move over to that bob-omb." Wario ordered.

"What bob-omb? You know I can't see anything but the *CENSORED* cloth of the donkey!" Waluigi replied. Again, some young and innocent ears got covered when the word that was censored was said.

"Then just continue to walk! I will move us to that bomb…" Wario responded, while the donkey moved very strange to a random bob-omb. Bob-ombs are… explosive creatures. They look like a bomb, but with legs, eyes, and wind-up keys. This bob-omb had a small bag around his wind-up key, obviously meant to store star bits and other important things in.

When the donkey passed the bob-omb, Wario opened a small gap in the donkey, moved his hand through it to the bob-omb's bag, and then carefully and slowly moved his hand through the bag, making sure the Bob-omb wouldn't mention his hand. Then, he grabbed a random item, and moved his hand, again carefully and slowly, out of the bag. Once his hand was far enough from the bob-omb, he quickly moved it back in. The donkey than quickly moved away.

"See? It's genius, I say! Nobody ever thought of taking the cliché donkey costume and use it for this! I'm a straight genius, number one of the male species! All the females love me…" Wario started drooling about his plan, but Waluigi interrupted.

"I don't see it! I only see the *CENSORED* cloth of this *CENSORED* costume! Couldn't you *CENSORED* make a *CENSORED* plan instead of this *CENSORED* *CENSORED* *CENSORED* *CENSORED* *CENSORED* donkey?" Waluigi replied angry and with a huge amount of swearing words. So many, that almost his whole reply would have been censured.

This didn't make Wario happy. In fact, it made him so furious, that Waluigi happily agreed with the normal 10/90 share after Wario unleashed his full anger on him. How Wario did this exactly, is a question that should not be answered.

They continued walking afterwards, stealing from very many bags from all kinds of people, without anybody noticing. However, a small toad girl noticed them, and having certain child instincts, she sneaked upon them, until she was behind them. Then…

"Aaaargh!" Waluigi shouted in pain when the small girl jumped on the donkey's, and his, back.

"Wide, horsey, wide!" The small girl jumped again, attempting to move the donkey forwards. A very big smile was on her face, so big, nobody would question her joy in this.

"Ai! Ouw! Aargh! Wah!" Waluigi screamed each time one of the previous words as the girl continued to jump and land on his back. "Get... Ouw! her… Wah! off…!" Waluigi managed to groan. Wario in the meantime didn't mention the girl at all and simply continued walking, forcing Waluigi to do it as well, despite that he was in lots of pain. The two parents of the girl were watching their girl and the donkey.

"Just look how much fun Toatina is having…" The toad mother said, drooling over her precious little girl.

"Should we get her off the donkey?" The toad father asked, taking in consideration that donkey might not enjoy their girl jumping on it.

"Nah, let her have her fun for now… The donkey seems to enjoy it as well anyway." The toad mother answered. Oh, if they only knew…

Meanwhile, in Peach's castle were the toads preparing everything for tonight. Toadsworth was worrying yet again over Peach.

"Argh! I can't stand that we haven't heard anything from the toad brigade at all! They've been probably kidnapped by Bowser, who's now waiting for the ideal moment to kidnap us all, with the help of all his minions and children!" Toadsworth screamed through the castle, loud enough for everyone to hear that was in the castle.

"Hey, what was that?" A rather young toad asked to an older one. The young toad was a newbie in the castle, nobody would question that.

"Oh, don't worry. That's just Toadsworth worrying about Peach. You will get used to it after a while." The older toad answered. Moving back to Peach and Toadsworth…

"There's no reason to be afraid, Toadsworth. I'm pretty sure they're just spying on him even now. They will join us later, I think." Peach replied, moving quickly through the hall where she and Toadsworth were. She had so many things to do. First checking the last statics of the tourists. Then preparing the cake for Mario. And then finally, prepare herself for tonight.

"Think, think! We can't think! We have to act! Cancel the festival, and hide for Bowser!" Toadsworth replied, angry at Peach's positive way of thinking. There were so many things that could go wrong… First, Bowser. Then, thieves. Then, Bowser. Then, kidnappers. Then, Bowser. Then…

"No! Even _if_…" Peach made sure to accent the word if, so that Toadsworth would hear it. "Bowser kidnapped them, it's too late to hide now anyway. Just let me enjoy the festival until he does, if he does at all."

Toadsworth looked for a moment at Peach, before replying: "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Thanks, Toadsworth." Peach replied with a smile, moving to another room without him. However, Toadsworth had other plans than just let Peach enjoy the festival until she would get kidnapped again. No, his heart wouldn't take it very well if that would happen again. But first, he had to write a letter. So he walked out of the hallway, going to one room…

Going back to Peach, she was heading to the meeting room. She only needed to check what kind of species had appeared since six days back, and if the amounts had increased. When she entered the meeting room, she saw that it was a whole lot more organized than six days ago. You could actually see the table that was first hidden by all the papers, for example. The star bits were still falling in the meantime. You could hear them landing on the ceiling. It sounded like it was raining…

Peach grabbed a few papers, skimming them if they were the last update of the total amounts of the tourists. They weren't, so she placed them back on the table, and picked a few other papers, skimming them. She continued this way, until she finally found it. She looked over it. The amount of humans was still one. The other species, though, had increased very much. There were now also other species, like bob-ombs, shy-guys and a whole lot more. Even bullet bills, that were actually only living bullets, had appeared on the list. How that was possible, was a question that Peach didn't want an answer to.

Besides that, there was now also from what kingdoms the tourists came from, like the Beanbean Kingdom, the Waffle kingdom, etc. Besides all those kingdoms, there was also the 'World Culture Lottery', meaning that the home country of the human that won the lottery, was still secret. That, or there was a country called World Culture Lottery. That was also a possibility.

Peach took one last look on the paper, before moving out the meeting room. She was planning to go now to the kitchen, in order to prepare some cake for Mario. Usually, the toads cooked, but Peach would always bake the cake herself. She moved through several rooms and hallways, which were always full of toads, preparing the castle for tonight. Oh, how beautiful the castle would be when Mario would arrive…

"Hiya, Peach!" was the cheerful voice from somewhere that interrupted Peach's thoughts. "How are things going?"

"Besides that I still have lots to do, things are going fine, Daisy." Peach answered, her voice not giving any hint that she was hasting to get everything ready on time. The way she walked, however, gave away she was.

"Really? Can I help you maybe with some things?" Daisy asked in a nice way. This time, Daisy looked like an actual princess. She wore now an sleeveless long orange dress. Her arms weren't covered by gloves like Peach, but Daisy still wore white gloves over her hands. On the dress was still the blue flower-like jewel. Both Peach's and Daisy's shoes couldn't be seen due their long dresses, but you could hear the difference. The clicking sound of Peach hinted that she wore high heels, but Daisy's stepping sounds sounded like some normal shoes.

"I would like it if you could, but no. These are things I need to do myself." Peach answered, still walking rather fast to the kitchen of the castle.

"Yeah, and what kind of things?" Daisy said as if she didn't really believe it. Daisy walked fast as well in order to keep up to Peach.

"Well, I need to make cake for Mario, and prepare myself for tonight." Peach replied. Toads in the hallway were running around, attempting to do the finishing touches for the festival.

"Prepare yourself? Why? I never understood why you do so much trouble making yourself up… I only do here and there some things, and I'm ready for the whole day! I've never cared much about that stuff." Daisy stated.

"Which is one of the reasons why people think of you as a tomboy…" Peach muttered.

"Well, then I am a tomboy…" While saying this, Daisy held up her arms as if not caring about it. "But that isn't the point. The point is that you do it too much."

"Well, I'm not a tomboy like you. So, leave it be." Peach said, and after that, Peach and Daisy continued talking about a lot of more things. Girly things, which boys like a certain boss-slayer never understand so instead, let's move on to people the author can understand better.

"Mario! You will be late if you don't leave now!" Luigi shouted to his older brother, who was in a different room. Both them and the luma were in the bros.' house. Luigi looked for a moment through the window. The sun was almost setting, but not quite yet. Star bits were still falling down like rain, but there were no children or teenagers collecting them anymore. They had enough of them by now. However, adult people seemed to pick them up, probably to sell them later for a high price.

Luigi moved his sight from the window to the luma. He was very childish and even naïve, but lucky, knew when to remain silent. Otherwise, they would have never managed to get him in Peach's castle yesterday. At the moment, the luma was playing a video game, suited for the luma's age.

Luigi's thoughts were interrupted by Mario: "What do you mean? It's only five o'clock yet and I need to be there half past six!" Mario shouted from the bathroom. He was shaving his mustache a bit, for it almost grew too long.

"Not anymore, I'm afraid. Toadsworth sent a letter, asking you to first check for Bowser in the surrounding area of Peach's castle ! Otherwise, he won't let you enter!" Luigi shouted back.

"Can he even do that?" Was Mario's reaction.

"No, but you know how he is; he will interrupt you with his worries when you are alone with Peach until you finally do it." Luigi answered.

"And how about you, Luigi? If I had heard correctly, you would spend the evening with Daisy… Do you need to check the area as well?" Luigi blushed upon the remark of Daisy, but answered anyway.

"Nope. Toadsworth only asked for you." Luigi answered. Sometimes, being a coward had its perks. People would count on it, and leave the scary and time consuming things to other people instead of you. In this case, he could simply skip the exploration to meet up with Daisy.

"Ah, fine. I was ready anyway…" Mario replied as he came out of the bathroom. He looked at the luma. "And when are you going to your mother, little guy?" Mario asked friendly towards the luma.

Luma didn't look up at first, but after Mario asked again, he did and answered: "Mommy said I should return after midnight… Can I explore with you until then?" The luma didn't seem to be completely unaware of his surroundings, as he knew about Toadsworth's request.

"Fine with me." Mario answered. The luma left the video game on, picked up Mario's cap while standing on Mario's head, and ducked beneath the cap. Mario's cap filled with warmth as an old power returned to him: the star spin. With that, he could… well, spin around, defeating enemies or stunning them with it. Mario tried it for once, before leaving his house. Luigi did so as well after shutting off the TV. Luigi then walked towards Peach's castle, looking forward to seeing Daisy again…

The sunset finally came. It was now around half past six, and a very large crowd had gathered around Peach's castle. The star bits were still falling down, and the comet could be seen very clearly already, thanks to the fact that the sky looked like as if it was already late in the night. All people (except for a few, who were either playing a video game or robbing other people) looked at the castle, at a balcony where Peach was supposed to arrive.

"Where's Mario?" Was Peach's question towards Luigi, who had appeared for a long time now in the castle, unlike Mario.

"I dunno! He got an order from Toadsworth to check the area surrounding Peach's castle for Bowser and his minions!" Was Luigi's answer. Him, Peach, Daisy and several toads were in a room nearby the balcony where the crowds eyes were looking at.

"Toadsworth!" Peach shouted angry. However, her angriness quickly faded as she saw Toadsworth falling literal in the room, looking exhausted.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Daisy asked friendly and but yet shocked.

"Bow… Bow…" Toadsworth stuttered, while panic sounds where heard from outside.

"The Gauls?" Daisy asked completely out of nowhere. The others looked strangely at her, before looking to Toadsworth again.

_(Music: Airship theme, SMG)_

"Bowser!" Toadworth shouted while finally fainting, causing everyone in the room to look this time outside through the window. A fleet of flying ships appeared over a nearby hill. There were a total of 13 ships, which all looked like some classic Renaissance ships, though they had propellers on the mast to keep them in the air. All of them started shooting cannonballs at… The crowd and the castle! No wonder the crowd was panicking! The castle shocked at each time it was hit, but not so hard that the people inside of it would trip.

"We gotta run!" Was Luigi's first response, but just as he wanted to open the door, the door got slammed open rude, breaking it in the process. It also squished Luigi in the process. The pieces of the door were on the wall, as if it was glued to it.

"We've got orders from the great Bowser to capture anyone standing in this room!" Said… a goomba as he moved bravely in the room, together with a few other goombas. The castle still got bombarded by the air fleet.

"Capture us? Ha! We're not afraid of you!" Daisy snapped at them, standing in a fighting stance. Peach did so as well. She was not getting kidnapped that easily again! The goombas ignored it, and simply moved out of the doorway, revealing a few koopas.

"Still not afraid!" Daisy remarked not impressed, still standing ready to fight. Then the koopas walked through the doorway and moved out of the way, revealing this time a few hammer bros.

"Okay, we're getting a little nervous over here…" Daisy said, now a bit intimidated. Peach got intimidated as well. Then, the hammer bros moved out of the way, revealing this time… Something that looked like a mini version of Bowser. No, it looked like as if it was Bowser's son. The spiky shell, the yellow skin tone, the dragon like face… All looked like Bowser's, though there were a few things that made this creature look different than Bowser. His red hair looked like a sprouting plant, he wore collars that had no spiky things on them and finally, he wore a bib that covered his whole belly, with on it a mouth with big fangs. This creature was Bowser Jr., son of Bowser (as if not obvious with the Jr…)

"Maybe we are getting a little terrified…" Daisy said, both she and Peach shaking on their legs. The toads (with the exception of Toadsworth) got captured by the koopas. Now Bowser Jr. moved out of the way (slightly disappointed that he didn't manage to scare Daisy and Peach completely), revealing this time, Kammy and Kamek.

"Ok, fine, we're afraid. Aaaaaaaah!" Daisy and Peach screamed as hard as they could, causing everyone that was still conscious in the room to cover their ears.

After a while, they finally stopped. "Ok, and why did you scream?" Kamek asked not impolite.

"What? You're expecting us not to? I mean, what kind of story would this be if we didn't scream like two damsels in distress?" Peach asked, gaining from everyone (with the exception of Daisy) odd looks.

"Err… Let's just kidnap them already." Bowser Jr. finally ordered. The hammer bros grabbed softly the princesses, but yet hard enough so that they couldn't escape, and moved them out of the room. Bowser Jr. looked around, seeming to be searching for someone. "Where's green stache? I thought he was supposed to be here, and I wanna take revenge on him and the other plumber already." Just then, the pieces of what was once a door, finally fell down on the ground, revealing Luigi, that also fell on the ground, leaving the wall with his imprint.

"… A stranger kidnapping is almost not possible… Capture him." Bowser Jr. ordered, and Kamek and Kammy took Luigi, moving out of the room, with Bowser Jr. and the goombas remaining in the room.

"Young sir, do we need to capture this Toad as well?" A goomba asked, while kicking softly the unconscious Toadsworth, because the goomba had no arms to point to him.

"Nah, he's very weak, and as boring as the underworld. And annoying. We would do daddy a pleasure by just leaving him here. With that, the goombas and Bowser Jr left the room as well.

While they loaded the prisoners on the ship, the crowd was still under attack, especially… one human boy, who was now putting quickly a handheld video game console in his bag.

"They never do tell about these kind of things, do they!" Rich screamed, trying to decide calmly on what to do, minus the calmly part. He saw most people simply running away, others attempting to attack the invaders that captured most people, and some toads…

"Are they running in circles?" Rich mentioned, while finally deciding to flee. "These toads are crazy!"

Anyway, Rich ran away like most smart people. He wondered where the beeping army was. They had to have one, right? Why didn't they defend the defenseless? At the moment, he could really use that. Then, Rich finally realized he was followed by some toads. Followed, because if Rich stopped in order to catch his breath, they would do so as well, instead of using their brain and continuing to run.

"Ok, and why are you following me?" Rich asked, his shyness completely not there because of the dangerous moment.

"Because you're the only human around here!" Was the answer of one of the toads.

"And what does that mean?" Rich questioned while still panicking.

"That does mean you're a human, and all humans always save us, though, sometimes, we need to give them money!" The same toad replied. Oh, couldn't they simply run already for it? The invaders would soon get to them!

"I'm only fifteen! You can't expect me to attack them! I'm way too young, and chances of survival are zero anyway!" Rich replied, thinking about abandoning the toads, but his good heart told him that he should first manage to get the toads running in their own direction as well.

"There are enough humans in other fanfictions who would rescue us in this situation! Sometimes, they are even younger than you!" The toad replied, while a wall nearby collapsed suddenly. No one paid attention to it, though.

"Wait, what?" Rich asked, completely confused by the statement of the toad. Other toads were as well.

"Never mind, just save us all already!" The toad shouted, getting everyone back to the main discussion. The invaders were nearing Rich and the toads… Also, aqua crystal-like comets fell down on the ground, some holding star-like creatures in themselves.

"No! You got the wrong person! I'm not saving anyone at all, because I can't! Can we flee already!" Rich shouted back.

"Too late!" Some grinning goombas appeared, surrounding the toads and Rich. The toads looked at Rich, waiting for him to react. Rich mentioned that.

"Hey, why are you looking at me? What are you expecting me to do? Jump on them?" Rich asked, but then quickly regretted asking the last question when he saw the nodding toads. "You're not serious, are you?" Rich questioned their nods, thinking the toads as crazy.

"Well, either that, or you could use a special ability against them…" The same toad from before said.

"Well, excuse me, but my ability is only to reflect ranged attacks! Not to use in close combat! And my jumping skills are no good!" Rich stated, attempting to prove it by jumping. He surprised himself by jumping one and a half time his own length.

"Whoa… Weird gravity…" Rich said while landing on his feet, forgetting about the goombas, who quickly took this chance to bounce on his head. One hit was not enough, but before Rich could react to the first hit, a second goomba jumped on him, knocking him this time unconscious. They carried him with them towards one of the ships that had landed, leaving the toads behind.

"Should we rescue him?" One of the toads asked.

"Nah, it's all for yourself! Run for it!" With that, the toads (which apparently had a very successful survival instinct… Odd, but successful) fled. Just as they left, Wario and Waluigi (still in the donkey costume, but without the small toad girl) appeared, walking straight for the airships.

"Where are we walking towards? And what's with all the screaming and explosions?" Waluigi asked, no sign of being afraid in his voice.

"Towards Bowser's airships! They are attacking this dumb town, and by invading the ships, we are sure to get to their treasure! But now keep silent; We can't afford to be spotted by them…" Wario explained everything that could be explained, and as such, Waluigi kept silent while they walked into one of the airships that had landed…

"I guess we've explored everything by now…" Mario said exhausted to the luma, that wasn't under the cap anymore. They had been searching for Bowser for two hours now, and he was nowhere to be found. So, Mario concluded, Toadsworth was simply worrying too much again. "Shall we go to the festival?" Mario asked.

"Okay…" The luma agreed, but not in his usual childlike happiness. It was as if he was sensing some kind of danger, or that other lumas were in trouble. He had been like this for an half hour now, and Mario started to worry. He kept his worried thoughts secret though.

"Let's-a go!" Mario said enthusiastic, attempting to cheer the luma up. His famous sentence was usually enough to do the job, but this time, even that didn't work. Mario decided to ignore it for now. The star festival probably would do it. Hopefully…

Mario got a huge surprise as he walked over a hill. Toad town was completely in ruins! The cause of this was… no, were thirteen airships! All of them had Bowser's symbol on them. Seeing as how Peach's castle was completely destroyed, Mario concluded that Peach was already kidnapped, probably along with Luigi and Daisy.

"Mamma mia!" Was all that Mario shouted while running on his fastest towards the airships. However, all of them flew away just as Mario wanted to board one, going into space…

_(And stop the music!)_

Mario sat down on the ground. Peach was kidnapped… again. By Bowser… again. Just as he was checking the area if Bowser was there… that was something new. The luma (that couldn't keep with Mario when he saw the airships) floated towards him, pointing to the crystal-like comets, that hold other lumas captured. Mario simply nodded, before the luma hid himself beneath Mario's cap again, letting Mario regain the star spin. Mario then walked towards one of the crystals, then spinned around. This broke the prison, freeing the luma that was in the inside of it. Mario continued to do this until all were freed.

"Master… Mario?" a weak old voice said as Mario broke the last one. Mario looked to the ruins of Peach's castle, spotting a weakened Toadsworth near it. Mario walked towards him, while all the other lumas than the cream one (the others were yellow) seemed to discuss something.

"What happened here?" Mario asked.

"Oh thank goodness. For a moment, I thought they had captured you as well…" Toadsworth weakly said. He coughed, before continuing. "I saw Bowser's ships… Tried to warn the princesses and master Luigi, but was too late anyway… I think they captured them, and a small amount of the tourists as well…"

"Err, sir?" a voice behind Mario asked. Mario turned around, seeing the freed lumas. One continued with talking "As a thank you for rescuing us, we have decided to help you…" Just as the luma stopped, one luma transformed in a puff of smoke into what seemed to be like two flat stars, that somehow looked like a cannon… An odd cannon, but a cannon nevertheless. The same luma continued. "Use your star spin to activate the warp star so you can follow those ships!"

"… And mommy?" The cream luma appeared from beneath Mario's cap, asking the question because he didn't want to leave his mother behind.

"… I don't know how to say this, but… the observatory got sealed away by the big monster…" Another yellow luma replied. The cream luma didn't believe it. His mother was much more powerful than to let that happen! The yellow luma noticed this. "I know it's unbelievable, but he just came, said: 'I'm gonna seal you away!' And then it did happen."

While the cream luma started crying (some yellow lumas tried to comfort him while he did), Mario couldn't shake one peculiar thing of himself. Big monster? Did that mean…

"How big was that monster?" Mario asked, getting nervous for what was in store for him.

"As big as a fortress! A big fortress!" A yellow luma answered. This confirmed Mario's thoughts. How it was possible for Bowser to steal a grand star in such short period, was a big question for him. But he had to fight him again… Yet again… And this time, not only to rescue Peach, but Daisy and Luigi as well. And of course the tourists that got captured.

After the cream luma finally stopped with crying, he and Mario looked each other straight in the eyes, nodding and moving to the warp star. The cream luma hid himself again beneath Mario's cap. Just as Mario wanted to activate it, Toadsworth started talking.

"So… Master Mario, you are heading to rescue Peach again?" Mario simply nodded. "Very well… Please, make sure that she returns safely and well… And that the others do as well…" Again, Mario simply nodded. Then, Mario finally spun around, activating the warp star, and shooting Mario in the abyss…

_(Music: Super Mario Galaxy 2 main theme)_

As Mario flew through the air, moving through some clouds, big letters appeared, only seeable by the readers. They said:

**SUPER MARIO GALAXY 3**

Then, pictures appeared, showing Mario jumping across planets, fighting goombas, dodging bullet bills, riding on a green yoshi, and beating a robotic Piranha plant. Then there came pictures of Luigi, who was walking through a place that looked like a haunted mansion, jumping on some koopas, fleeing from what seemed to be cannon balls, and swimming underwater. Then there came pictures of Rich, who punched a fire ball away, riding a roller coaster, punching some kind of sack back at a beanish that looked like a thief, walking through a place that looked like some ancient ruins, and sitting alone on a corner with nobody near him…

* * *

And that was the last part of the prologue. A review of this chapter mentioned that the chapter is lacking a lot of details, so sorry for that. If you think Rosalina's sealing away was lame, then well... it is. Next chapter will have a better excuse why she's sealed away, though I'm unsure when the next chapter will appear...

Oh yes. Can you spot the two Asterix and Obelix references? Both are made during the invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom.

But review please. It won't cost much of your time, and you only get a better story for it back...


	5. World 1: Small succeedings, big failures

Sorry that it took so long before the chapter came. I nearly had no time for myself past weeks, due school and homework. Then I got a writer's block, because I didn't know what to actually put in this star mission. Besides the boss, that is… Hopefully, it won't happen in the future. (Though I know it will. So don't get your hopes up)

But enough of excusing. I guess you want to read this chapter. So…

I'm going to annoy you with another thing. As some readers might mention, the author notes are not anymore about me and Rich discussing the chapter. This because a review I got. In the review, the author had written that I should get rid of 'the silly dialogue jokes'. I'm not hundred percent sure, but I thought the author meant the author notes. So, I got rid of the old style, and use this instead.

… And now for real, the next chapter… After the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else of his series. I'm not related to them in anyway.  
However, I own Rich. Though, if Nintendo wants him… I think we can talk about it.

* * *

_(Music: SMG 2 main theme)_

Welcome to the new galaxy!

That was the first thing that appeared in Mario's head as he flew towards what seemed… an odd small planetoid. For first, it wasn't a globe, but… well, let's just say that people who still believe that the world is flat, would be right in case of this planet. Of course, if you walked over the edge, you didn't fall off, or so was proven by a Goomba doing that. The gravity of the planet hold the goomba on it, so that the goomba walked now underneath the planet…

SMACK

That was the sound of Mario landing on the planet… On his head. He was so busy looking at the goomba and the planet, that he had forgotten that he would land on the same planet. The result of this was what you could name hardly a 'perfect landing.'

As Mario recovered from the hit, a yellow luma that had apparently spotted Mario floated towards him, without Mario mentioning. When it was near, it shouted: "Please help Mister Red guy!" Mario jumped back in surprise, not expecting the sudden shout. The luma didn't mention that though, and continued talking. "A big monster came yesterday, and stole all our power stars! Today, some of his ships appeared, placing an odd egg…" The luma turned around, looking straight at a normal planet. On it was what looked like a grey egg. "On that planet! We lumas are worried it's some kind of luma eating monster. Could you please check it out for us?"

"Err…" Mario started, not really knowing how to say what he wanted to say. "Can you repeat… everything? I kind of… got surprised by your voice…" Mario asked not impolite. The luma looked at Mario for a moment as if he was some kind of stupid, but then repeated everything again. Mario nodded as the luma repeated.

"So… Can you help?" The luma asked a bit desperately. If this red guy wouldn't do it, then all hope was lost. Then again, wasn't it already?

"Seeing as how I have to safe two princesses, my brother and lots of other folks, so that I'm so busy saving them that I can't focus on anything else, yeah, why not?" Mario answered, joking a bit here and there. The luma simply gave him an weird look, before saying:

"Yee! Thank you, Mr. Red guy! I suggest that you defeat the monster and get the power star of him! When you do, I will guide you to somebody who has her planet parked here!" It was this time Mario's turn to look weird at the luma. A planet parked…? Mario simply shrugged it off. However, if Mario didn't simply do that so fast, he would have mentioned that the luma seemed angry for some reason. It was as if the luma had mentioned someone that had brought him trouble.

"So… How do I get on that planet?" Mario asked.

"A mate of mine can transform into a warp star to warp you to another planet. On that planet, another luma will send you to the planet. See you later!" With that, the luma flew away, leaving Mario behind, who had his mouth open.

"And where are your friends…" Mario muttered, knowing very well that the luma didn't hear the question. "And why can't you bring us there immediately…" Mario stood there for a few minutes after muttering last sentence, before he finally started walking on the odd planet. The grass that grew on it, moved aside as Mario stepped with his feet into it.

After a short time, Mario had walked to the other edge of the rather small planet. A few trees here and there, but nothing that was interesting… On this side.

"So, should we try the other side?" Mario asked to the luma, who was still beneath his cap. After receiving no response, Mario asked again. Still nothing. Mario then lifted his cap of his head, his hand moving to his hair. Mario then realized that the luma was not on his head, but had forged with him… Well, as long as the luma wanted, that is. It was like this with the previous two lumas, and now with this one as well… That he didn't realize it until now, was kind of odd…

But still, that didn't mean that the luma couldn't answer. Then Mario heard something snoozing softly. Mario looked around, seeing nobody asleep. He checked again, but still nobody. For a moment, he thought of the snoozing as imagination, when he heard it again. And now, Mario realized who was snoozing.

Mario grinned as the luma continued with the snoozing. After all, the luma was still young. It could only be expected that he was asleep now, after all that they had experienced…

"Ah, then I just do it anyway." Mario muttered, before setting a step over the edge… And walked over the edge to the other side of the planet. On this side of the planet, there was no green; only brown soil. As Mario gazed at this new side, he spotted a blue crystal-like… crystal. As this was the only special thing on this planet, Mario decided to investigate it. As he walked towards it…

"Stop!" A brown goomba shouted, while blocking Mario's way. The goomba looked to the crystal, apparently knowing Mario's presence there by hearing him, but not by seeing. "By order of the great king Bowser, I will…" The goomba turned around, facing Mario. One moment later, the most girliest scream ever could be heard in the galaxy.

"Mario! How… did you… escape!" The goomba asked terrified.

"Escape? I was never captured." Mario simply replied. Mario jumped three times his size, before landing on the poor goomba. The goomba got flattened in the progress.

Mario looked at the now flat goomba, before continuing his path to the crystal. Upon nearing it, Mario saw a luma in it. Not hesitating a moment, Mario broke the crystal with a spin.

"Phew! Thank you!" The luma thanked Mario, before transforming into a warp star. "Spin to get to the next planet!"

"And how did you know that I wanted to ask if you could send me to the next planet?" Mario asked, a bit surprised that the luma knew what he wanted before he told so.

"Mom said it was rather hard to explain… Something with emotional thoughts…" After this answer, Mario simply used the warp star, and flew towards the next planet. During the flight, Mario flew through circles that were made of star bits. Knowing full well how important they were, Mario attempted to collect some. He missed all of them, though.

Mario neared the next planet. This time he was prepared, and he landed on the planet with such great landing that several goombas in the surrounding area gave him a ten, ten and a nine.

"Why the nine?" Mario asked, looking at the goomba that gave him said number. The other goombas did as well.

"What? You're the enemy! Of course I give ya a lower number!" The goomba replied. Maybe he shouldn't have done that, because it reminded a certain someone of his very important mission. The result? Three flat goombas.

"Why did you say that!" One of the goombas asked furious as Mario walked away from them.

"Because I'm honest, unlike a certain other goomba!" The goomba which had given a nine answered, looking straight at the goomba that hadn't said anything yet.

"You're still upset because I told you that goomba girl liked you?" The goomba asked not impolite. As a respose, the goomba of the nine walked with his flat legs and feet towards the goomba, stepping painfully on him.

"I take that as a yes…" The flat goomba said, getting even flatter than before.

Returning back to Mario, he was wandering around the planet. Several holes here and there, and if you fell in them, you would end up in a big, black, circle. From his experience gained on his previous adventures, Mario knew that those were black holes. It was the last thing you wanted to fall into. Because of this, Mario carefully avoided each hole.

Besides those holes, it was a rather normal planet. Ok, the planet was more stick like than the normal globe, but that was also the only thing worth noticing. The ground was formed mostly out of grass, some rocks, and on a few spots mud. The planet lacked trees, and because of that, looked rather empty. Several goombas were on Mario's path, which attacked Mario, but Mario always simply jumped on them, flattening them and leaving them incapable of fighting. None had something important to say. None?

"I'm seriously wondering why we are on this planet. I mean, everyone, including Mario, has been captured. So, who's supposed to come here anyway?" A goomba asked towards another one. Both didn't mention Mario, who quickly took cover behind a grey rock. If it was any smaller, then Mario should have taken another rock to hide behind.

"Well… I don't know. Maybe some new girl with an unnatural will to follow Mario's footsteps… But that's probably not gonna happen soon. Just look at this as a vacation, okay?" The other goomba asked, lying down on the ground to… sunbathe?

"Okay... But that still leaves me with the question why they did put that robot here..." The first goomba muttered.

"Simple. They had to put it somewhere. And because they're uncertain what that boy can do, Ludwig Koopa ordered us to put him into the robot as a prisoner. This way, nobody would come to his rescue." As the second goomba answered, he whirled around in the grass, trying to make his lying spot more comfortable. Mario wondered for a bit who 'that boy' could be. Luigi? But he was much older than 'a boy'. Shouldn't he be called a man?

"That puts me with another question. Why did Iggy Koopa made the weak spot of the robot so obvious? I mean, he could have put it on the head of the plant. Would be much harder to reach than his back!" The first goomba complained. Mario wondered what they were talking about, but decided to memorize this information anyway.

"Huh? Did I hear snoozing?" The second goomba questioned. Mario realized that he could mean the still sleeping luma, and prepared to react if the goombas would go to his rock.

"If you did, it was yourself." The first goomba simply answered.

"What's that supposed to mean!" The second goomba asked angry.

"You're lying down in the grass! You could have fallen asleep, even if it was only one second!" The first goomba answered, for some reason becoming angry as well.

"I didn't! And you shouldn't try to accuse somebody else with 'slacking off'!"

"Says who?"

"And what do you mean with that?"

"You were the one who said I should see this mission as a vacation! If that's not slacking off, then I don't know what it is!"

"I did not say that!"

"You did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

The loud discussion awoke the luma, who was not very happy with this rude awakening. The argument annoyed Mario as well, and instead of remaining covered, Mario decided to attack the two goombas. They didn't see it coming, but heard Mario shouting: "Thanks for the tip!" Mario walked away, leaving the two, now flat, goombas behind.

"So… Mario wasn't kidnapped?" The first goomba asked, his angriness being now just as small as how flat he was.

"Apparently not." The second one answered. He was not angry anymore as well.

"What are we going to do?"

"Tell Bowser, of course… And go to the first aid." With that, the two goombas walked very slowly away.

Meanwhile, Mario managed to get to the end of the spiral-like planet. There, he found another luma. This one was not imprisoned. Instead, he was hiding for something, probably the goombas. The luma didn't seem to see Mario.

"Hello?" Mario asked friendly to the luma. The luma looked around, searching for the source of the voice. When he saw Mario, he sighed relieved.

"Phew… I was afraid one of those monsters would find me… Could you bring me somewhere safe?" The luma asked, but regretted it quickly when Mario answered:

"Err… Actually, we're trying to get somewhere dangerous…"

"Are you crazy? Why would somebody want to get somewhere dangerous?" The luma questioned while shouting.

"To make safe spots…?" Mario answered.

"… That's a good reason…" The luma muttered. It seemed to think for a moment, before transforming into a warp star.

"Fine! But I warn you! That egg on the planet I will warp you to, is very dangerous!" Mario hesitated despite the warning no second, and soon was on his way to the planet, which had the normal globe form. While he neared, he mentioned lots of trash hanging in the sky around the planet. It looked like… pieces of a hatched egg… No, with this amount, it would have been two eggs.

Mario flew towards the metallic-grey egg, landing on it with his two feet. Mario jumped off the egg, now landing on the soils of the planet. Mario looked around the planet. The planet seemed to exist out of small strokes grass that divided the planet into several plates. Those plates were brown, thanks to the brown earth-like sand. One small stroke of grass circled around the egg.

Suddenly, the egg started shaking. The egg, upon nearer inspection by Mario, looked more like some metal, odd-shaped working-place, one where big metallic things were built. As the egg started shaking even harder, sounds of metallic cracking were heard. Cracks on the metal of the egg appeared, splitting the egg into several parts. With one big crack, all pieces suddenly flew off. Dust flew to everywhere, causing Mario to cover his eyes. The luma made odd, scared beeping sounds.

As the dust fell on the ground, Mario finally uncovered his eyes. On the place where once the egg was, was now a huge metal statue. No, not a statue. A robot. This robot had a large 'belly', two short 'paws' and finally a very large 'head'. This head had several small gear wheels around it, in such form that caused the head to look like a flower. A meat eating one, if one looked at the large fangs in the big mouth. The mouth was in the middle of the face and went from the left to the right. Thanks to this, the head looked like two halve globes. The two screws at the end of the mouth confirmed this. The robot had absolutely nothing that could be the eyes.

Mario looked eye-to-the-place-where-the-eye-is-supposed-to-be at the robot, who let out a loud metallic grown.

**BOSS: Robo Piranha**; hatched technology robot. _(Music: Peewee Piranha, SMG 2)_

Robo Piranha: 3/3

Mario: 3/3

"Mama mia!" Was Mario's first reaction when the Piranha charged at him. The piranha didn't run fast, but still managed to ram into the surprised Mario. Mario got sent flying backwards, while the piranha let out a metallic laugh.

Mario: 2/3

The piranha moved back to the plate where the piranha had appeared first. When Mario recovered from the attack, the piranha charged again at Mario. This time though, Mario was prepared. Mario quickly moved out of the way, dodging the attack in the progress. The piranha didn't stop though, and ran around the whole planet in several steps, stopping at the exact same plate again.

When the piranha ran, Mario caught his breath. How was he supposed to get rid of this thing? The piranha seemed familiar; as if it was a reference to something. But what?

As Mario tried to decide his next move, the piranha very slowly turned around, setting steps to help it do this. When Mario was standing straight in front of the piranha, it charged again. It nearly hit Mario, if it wasn't for the fact Mario mentioned the attack on time, so that he could dodge it. The piranha walked around the whole planet again, stopping on the same plate again.

As the piranha prepared for another charge, Mario remembered what the goombas had said. _"Why did Iggy Koopa made the weak spot of the robot so obvious? I mean, he could have put it on the head of the plant. Would be much harder to reach than his back!" _Mario simply had to get behind the piranha for the weak spot!

Mario waited for the next attack of the piranha, which was a charge yet again. Mario dodged it easily this time, and as the piranha continued its way, walked behind it, mentioning a large gear wheel on the back. This wheel, partially in the robot and partially in open air, circled around slowly.

"What if we turn it around a bit faster?" Mario asked towards the luma with a grin. The luma made agreeing sounds. Mario ran to the piranha (which was now halfway around the planet), and as soon as Mario was near, he spinned. The gear wheel circled around much faster, causing apparently a malfunction. The piranha screamed while stopping in metallic pain. Several gear 'petals' fell off, bouncing on the ground. The gear wheel circled normally again after a while, but the damage had already been done.

Robo Piranha: 2/3

The piranha suddenly continued with its path, now running much faster. Mario attempted to spin the gear wheel again, but the piranha ran now much faster than Mario could. Mario ran after it, but quickly regretted it when he saw that the piranha had turned around and was now charging at him again. Mario nearly got hit, but still managed to get out of the way.

Mario decided it was useless to attempt to follow the robot again. Instead, he remained on the same spot as the piranha continued its route. In the time it took the piranha to complete it, Mario saw why the piranha always stopped on the same plate; the spot was made of steel, with lights here and there flashing. Numbers came and went. Electricity seemed to flow from it, but not in dangerous amounts for a human. Mario concluded that the piranha either got its energy in this spot, or got data where Mario was. Either way, Mario had to use this information to his advantage.

The piranha arrived on the spot again, and turned around slightly towards Mario, and then attempted to rush into Mario. He dodged, and while the piranha did its thing, Mario moved to the other side of the metallic spot. Mario had a plan…

The piranha arrived, nearly hitting Mario in the progress, who was standing near its walking path. The piranha now had its back and gear wheel at Mario's side, and while it tried to turn around, Mario managed to spin the wheel again. It moved faster than it was supposed to be, causing a malfunction again. The robotic plant screamed in pain again, while some 'petals' fell off. The gear wheel slowed down, but moving still moving faster than normal. Now the piranha was in full rage.

Robo Piranha: 1/3

_(Music: Peewee Piranha: Fast)_

The piranha quickly completed its rotation, and attempted to charge into Mario again. Mario dodged, but to his surprise, the piranha quickly turned a ninety degree rotation, and charged again. Mario flew backwards as he was hit, the piranha laughing while returning to the metal plate.

Mario: 1/3

Mario puffed and panted. One hit more, and it would be the end already. Mario stood up, something the piranha mentioned. It charged again at Mario. Mario dodged the attack easily. The piranha then turned again a ninety dgree rotation, with Mario dodging it again. The piranha again rotated, and surprised Mario with that. Despite that, Mario dodged again. The piranha attempted it again, but Mario again dodged, now knowing that the piranha wouldn't stop.

"If it continues this way, then I don't need to go on a diet for a long time!" Mario thought as he dodged the attack of the piranha. They were circling on the same spot, both never stepping on the piranha's previous resting place. The piranha was too fast for Mario to attempt a spin, and Mario always dodged the attacks. Mario saw for a moment the metal plate, and it suddenly hit him how he could deal the last blow.

After dodging a few more attacks, the piranha, Mario and the metallic plate stood straight in a line, with Mario between the piranha and the plate. When the piranha charged again, instead of dodging, Mario ran towards the plate. The piranha moved faster than Mario and neared Mario. As soon as Mario stepped on the middle of the plate, he turned ninety degrees and ran off the plate. The piranha, however, ran straight forward. As Mario neared the side of the plate, the piranha hit Mario… Almost!

Mario panted while turning around. The piranha didn't attack. It was rotating towards Mario. Rotating very slowly, giving Mario the chance to hit the wheel. Mario easily went to it, spinning it again. The piranha screamed, the last 'petals' falling off, and fell down on the ground. It then exploded into a million pieces.

_(Stop the music!)_

Where once the piranha was, was now a yellow star (not the real version) appeared. It had two eyes, but no mouth. It looked like a luma, except it looked more… lifeless. Mario looked at it, before searching for something.

"Luigi?" Mario asked, remembering the words of the goomba. When Mario didn't see his younger brother, he moved one step forwards… Only to have a rather heavy body fall on him.

"You did it!" The yellow luma from the first planet appeared. "And… Since when did you put on other clothes?" The luma asked, not realizing that Mario was beneath the person it was talking to. "And since when did you shave your mustache? And when did you became thinner? And larger? And…"

"Okay, okay! I know!" Mario said, throwing the person that was on him off and standing up. "I know that I'm not the most thinnest person, but this is quite offensive!" Mario said angry.

"Oh… So you aren't the person… Sorry…" The luma apologized. Mario, being forgivable, immediately accepted. He looked at the body. It was not Luigi, something he already figured out when the luma asked since when he had shaved his mustache. Though… This boy could have done the shaving better. The boy, who was unconscious, wore a normal dark-yellow sweater, with no kind of symbol of word on it. Though, on it were several gaps, caused by the fire of the explosion. Those gaps were also on the boy's jeans, which was also plain, like the sweater. A dark blue digital watch was around his wrist. He had a rucksack on his back, not as burnt as the sweater and the jeans. Everywhere else on the body were first degree burns. The boy was lucky it wasn't worse.

"Err…" The luma started. "Should I bring you to the captain I mentioned before?"

"I guess… It's not like I can go anywhere else." Mario answered. "But first; couldn't you bring me to this planet at the start?" Mario asked.

"I could, but I wanted to know if my friends were safe… I knew they would bring you here anyway, so that's why I asked you to search for them first… Sorry." The luma apologized. Mario accepted, and the cream luma (who was oddly silent the whole time) did as well. The yellow luma then transformed into a warp star, which Mario used to get to somewhere else, the young boy being carried on his shoulders…

* * *

Meanwhile, at the darkest of the darkest location of the universe…

"Mwahahahaha!" The evil laugh of Bowser echoed loud in what seemed to be a very large throne room. "I can't believe it! I've captured both princesses, that annoying green donkey, green 'stache and Mario at the same time! And I've also captured ten thousand other people! Now the universe will finally belong to me!"

"Cough, cough…" the coughs came from six small creatures. They looked a bit like Bowser Jr., like brothers and sisters would. Together with Bowser, they sat on several thrones. Bowser had a very big one, this due his very big size, even bigger than he was in his castle. The creatures (which were in comparison to Bowser as small as ants), though, had ones of normal size. There was a total of nine thrones, with two thrones empty. Those empty thrones were the ones next to Bowser.

The creature on the far left had a green head and green hair, the hair looking like a palm tree. He was also by far the thinnest and largest of the creatures, besides Bowser regarding largeness of course. He also had scientist glasses and a green shell on his back. He was known as Iggy Koopa.

The creature to the right of him, had a pink head with no hair. He also had pink sunglasses and a pink shell. He seemed to be the strongest, with the exception of Bowser. He seemed to tease Iggy a bit. This one was Roy Koopa.

The creature on the right of Roy was very small. In fact, he was the smallest of them all. He had a green head, and an orange shell. He also had rainbow colored hair. He was playing with a ball. This creature was Lemmy Koopa.

On the right of Lemmy was an empty throne, with Bowser on the right of that empty throne. On the right of Bowser was the other empty throne, and on the right of that throne was another creature. This one had a green head, sky blue hair and a sky blue shell. This one was called Larry Koopa.

On the right of Larry was the creature that had a completely other skin. He had a white head, but the other parts of his body were grayish black, including his shell. He seemed to be strong like Roy, but not as strong. This one was Morton Koopa Jr.

And finally, in the far right, was another one, but this one… was female. Despite her gender, she didn't have any hair, but a big pink bow with white spots made up for that. She wore a necklace that existed out of red beads. She wore also several ring-like bracelets and pink high heels, making her the only one that wore shoes. She also had a pink shell as well. She was known as Wendy O. Koopa.

The throne room itself was apparently still in construction. Scaffolds were everywhere, even above the thrones. Minions, varying from Goomba's to Hammer Bros., walked in and out with construction kits, wood, stones, etc.

"Cough, cough…" All of the six creatures (that were known as Koopalings) coughed again after getting no response from their dad, Bowser. He finally got it.

"Oh yes, the whole universe belongs to me and my children. Mwahahahahaha!" Bowser laughed evilly again, earning weird looks from his kids. He didn't mention it though.

"Sigh… That's the tenth time this day…" Larry muttered.

"Ah, you get used to it after a while." Wendy replied, putting some make-up on her face.

"Look! I can juggle with five balls!" Lemmy shouted in happiness, proving his statement by doing it.

"And, palm-head? Ready to say that strength is better than being smart?" Roy asked Iggy, fists ready to deal some heavy damage.

"Nah, no time! I have to give Chompy a new mechanic super bone!" Iggy replied, attempting to combine a mushroom and a bone. Roy's fist went fast to Iggy to attack him, but Iggy simply avoided being hit by moving his head down.

"Hey, where's junior and Ludwig?" Larry asked. Bowser was still laughing, despite everything that had happened in the time since he started.

"Junior is busy with his so-called Zoo tycoon that he got from dad, and Ludwig is helping him with it. I don't know why he got it! We're all children of Bowser, not only that brat junior! Does Bowser prefer his own name or something to prefer junior over us?" Morton grumbled angry.

"Hey! Look! Listen! I can do six balls now!" Iggy's face was full of happiness and pride as he juggled with six balls.

While Bowser was still laughing, and the koopalings were talking to each other, the main door got throw rude open. It slammed hard into the wall, breaking both the door and the wall in the progress. Bowser stopped laughing.

"Hey, why open so rude?" Bowser asked angry to the person that opened the door.

"That's the fourth door this story!" Lemmy said, still happy and still juggling. This gained him weird looks from the other koopalings.

"Excuse me sir, but this news is important!" a masculine voice said as a blue coated figure entered the room. This figure was Kamek.

"I could never guessed that Kamek was, like, this strong!" Wendy said amazed.

"Well, Kamek's magic level of strength is near the maximum possible. One might conclude that his stick of ultimate might and magic could cause the door of this room to flew into the wall." Iggy explained, the weird looks of the koopalings now moving from Lemmy to Iggy.

"Well, spit it up. What's so important?" Bowser asked Kamek.

"Mario has not been captured!" Kamek cried out loud.

"WHAT!" Bowser and the koopalings (with the exception of Lemmy and Iggy; Lemmy didn't care and Iggy was busy with something else) shouted out so loud, that the whole building they were in could hear it.

"Goombas that were positioned in Stardock Galaxy reported this, great king!" Kamek replied to the scream.

"And how do you know that they are not putting up some joke?" Bowser questioned.

"Simple. They were flattened by Mario's attacks." Kamek simply answered. Then, Bowser's very big hand shoot out, and grabbed Kamek. Only Kamek's head managed to stick out above the hand.

"And weren't you ordered to capture Mario?" Bowser asked furious.

"Yes… sire, but… apparently… something went wrong…" Kamek attempted to breath, something that was very hard with Bowser's grip.

"What could have gone wrong? You know Mario! You should have known if Mario was captured or not!" Bowser tightened his grip, choking Kamek.

"Well… I… didn't… check… it… Asked… for… a… report… Report… said… two… male… humans… captured… Later… on… heard… that… one… was… new… Never… stuck…to… me… to… return… to… capture… Mario…" Despite not liking the answer, Bowser freed Kamek, who fell back to the floor. Bowser turned his attention to the koopalings.

"And you! All of you! Weren't you ordered to capture Mario as well? You should have mentioned he was not in one of your ships!" Bowser shouted like a general would do to a soldier that failed an important mission.

"What?" Roy replied. "We were ordered to either invade Peach's castle or to guard the ships. Mario wasn't in Peach's castle and we couldn't find him between the tourists as well. When we heard from Kamek he was captured, we simply left."

"Graah! This is probably the worst that could happen!" Bowser shouted while slamming his fist on his throne. "At least tell me he fell against that robot Iggy made!"

"We haven't got reports about that yet, sir. The last troop of flattened goombas said that Mario was fighting Robo Piranha, doing pretty bad against it." This statement of Kamek (who had recovered from the grip) calmed Bowser down a bit.

"Well, lucky enough that I have prepared for this kind of situation. After all the trouble we went through, you can't afford to not do that…"

"What kind of trouble, daddy?" Lemmy asked. Upon hearing this, Wendy, Roy, Larry and Morton face slapped themselves.

"*Censored*, Lemmy! We have heard the story ten times! Ten times!" They all growled. Bowser ignored them, and started preparing a long speech, a huge grin on his face…

"Ah, how we managed to get this far…" Bowser started. "This story will be history sometime, so memorize it very well. On a good, dark evening, the great and famous koopa king heard from his minions of several, evil toad spies. These spies were sent to check if the koopa king wasn't going to set one of his master plans into working. Of course, they were captured soon, and told the great King willingly why they were sent on this impossible mission in the first place…"

"Willingly? I heard they accidently slipped the purpose of the mission out of their mouths…" Roy muttered. Bowser ignored it.

"The toads told the awesome king that there would be soon a festival. This festival, called the star festival, was a stupid, dumb party, the only purpose of it to gain some weights. But of course, the great King knew more about the festival. I knew that the festival is always hold when a comet visits. But this comet is not a normal one. It's a big comet observatory, traveling through space. Of course, you cannot compare it to what we use, but the people on it had to travel on some way."

"Says the one that wanted to use cannons to get into space the first time…" Kamek muttered. Bowser ignored him as well.

"Setting up a brilliant plan with his mastermind, the king went, along with some of his less brilliant minions, on an airship to the observatory. This was on the day before the star festival. The captain of the comet observatory, named Rosalina, stood no chance against the fierce attacks of the great king…"

"You mean, your airship stood no chance against Rosalina's powers. You were lucky it crashed into the observatory, otherwise you would be floating forever in space…" It was this time Larry interrupting Bowser. Bowser started to get annoyed, but continued.

"But, Rosalina was not alone. And I don't mean her sorry crew of star babies. No, there was another ship with other star babies. This ship had a captain, of the same species as the star babies. The crew attempted to help Rosalina, and actually succeeded in this."

"Wow. Dad can actually tell the truth during one of his monologues." Wendy said truly amazed. Bowser got more annoyed by this, but ignored the remark of his daughter.

"The not-observatory ship attempted to shoot the great king with cannonballs, while Rosalina used her magical powers at him. Realizing that it was a losing battle, the king fled into the observatory, searching for what he came in the first place there, leaving Rosalina and the other captain behind…"

"And your minions as well." Kamek added. Bowser again ignored.

"They attempted to stop the great king from finding a grand star, but failed. The king's victory was ensured now. The king ate the grand star in one swallow, and the mystical powers of the star made the king even bigger than he already was. Rosalina, realizing she was losing now, attempted to seal with magic the remaining grand and power stars away into another world. She started with the power stars, and those quickly were out of the great king's reach. However, with the magic power the king already had and with the power of the grand star, increased the power of Rosalina's spell; the whole observatory, including Rosalina and the star babies, got sealed away."

"And if it wasn't for your minions, you would have been sealed away as well. Lucky they warned you, so you could flee in time." Roy remarked. Bowser's annoyance got bigger. When he wanted to continue, Lemmy interrupted.

"Dad, question. Why didn't Rosalina seal you away?" Lemmy asked. He seemed to be the most interested in the story of the koopalings. Before Bowser could answer, Kamek did.

"The combination of Bowser's might and the grand star together were too strong for Rosalina to do this. If Rosalina attempted it before Bowser got the grand star, it could have happened." Kamek explained.

"But why could daddy seal himself away then?" Lemmy questioned Roy's remark. Bowser disliked the question and as such, Kamek again explained.

"Because it was the magical power of Rosalina, the grand star and Bowser together. Bowser didn't cast the spell himself; He alternated Rosalina's, this explaining how Rosalina's strength was added into the mix. The power of all three was strong enough to seal away the observatory and all in it, including your giant daddy."

"Can I continue now?" Bowser asked grumpy.

"No. If the observatory was sealed away, then how was it possible that the stardust still fell on the mushroom kingdom?" Larry asked.

"I was getting to that." Bowser answered. "To continue the story, the whole observatory was sealed away, with the remarkable exception of the grand stars. These quickly were taken by the other captain, that fled away from the king's awesomeness. The great king followed the ship."

"Nearly leaving your minions behind again… Lucky that your gravitation had increased, so that the minions got stuck on your shell. Otherwise, nobody would ever have seen them again…" Kamek interrupted, now gaining an angry stare from Bowser. Kamek became silent.

"The ship fled towards a galaxy near the mushroom kingdom. This galaxy, named Stardock galaxy, had its own stock of power stars, a total of fifty-four stars. The king easily managed to conquer the harbor, stealing all the power stars of it. The ship was easily destroyed with a few punches of the almighty king, who captured all grand stars. It was then that it stuck to the king. With the observatory gone, there would be no comet that would cause the stardust to fall on the mushroom kingdom and this would led to no star festival. The inhabitants would get suspicious of this, and that was the last thing the king wanted."

"You realized it yourself? I thought that my call let you realize it… That remembers me… May I go tonight to the disco?" Wendy asked polite and with big puppy eyes.

"No! I thought we already discussed that!" Bowser answered furious.

"Ah, come on…" Wendy muttered, but Bowser ignored her and continued.

"So, he took it upon himself to replace the comet. Ordering his minions to collect as many star bits that were scattered across the universe, as possible, and using one of his airships as the comet, the king tried to imitate it. The minions would throw all the star bits three for three towards the mushroom kingdom, while the king himself controlled the airship so that the inhabitants thought it was the observatory itself.

"How unlikely and impossible as it was, the plan actually succeeded… This plan should go to the archive of 'Stupid, idiotic, impossible plans that somehow worked.' But then again, the magic Kammy, Kamella and I used on the airship helped to let it look more like the observatory…" Kamek added to Bowser's monologue, earning another angry look of him. Kamek again became silent.

"All was pretty easy from then on. The King's children and high ranked generals went to capture all of the tourists, the princesses and other annoying pests. At the end, the king had his minions built a large palace in the center of the universe, where he and his children currently reside." With that, Bowser's monologue ended. Lemmy clapped in his hands.

"Awesome! Still prefer a circus, but still!" Lemmy said amused.

"Sir… One question. Before you started your 'awesome story of how I got into space', you mentioned that you had a back-up plan for the Mario problem." Kamek said.

"Ah yes… This plan is probably one of my best back-ups ever!" Bowser shouted full with pride. "This plan is to not put all important prisoners in my own palace but instead shatter them around the galaxies! This way, Mario needs to travel much longer before he will get to me, so I can prepare my real master plan for a much longer time!"

"And what if Mario needs to travel through those galaxies anyway to get here? Wouldn't you be helping him then, giving him allies to fight alongside him?" Kamek questioned. This resulted into Bowser again grabbing Kamek, the last one choking.

"NO! I know he will attempt to get here as fast as possible, and this will hinder his progress!" Bowser released Kamek from his grip, who fell back to the ground.

"What you say…" Kamek said as he attempted to recover. Poorly enough for him, he got pushed hard aside by Kammy. Kamek fell to the ground, while Kammy reported:

"Your giantness! I have bad news! While Bowser Jr. was playing and Ludwig helping him, we have discovered that we only captured twenty-one people, not including the princesses!"

"WHAT? Out of TEN THOUSAND tourists PLUS a lot of inhabitants of toad town, we only managed to capture TWENTY-ONE people?" Bowser asked furious. Kammy simply nodded, resulting into she and Kamek becoming fried koopas by Bowser's fire breath.

"Seriously! Did you all fell asleep during your mission? I knew I should have been there! Then we wouldn't have so much trouble now!" Bowser shouted still furious. "Kids! You're all going to write an essay about how to not fail on your job! Kamek and Kammy! Inform Junior and Ludwig of the essay, and then clean the whole palace! Without magic! And I would advise you to do it now, as the palace is still in construction!" Bowser ordered. Kamek and Kammy quickly ran out of the throne room, with the koopalings following.

"Seriously, next time dad kidnaps the princess, I hope he does it on the normal way!" Roy complained.

"What did he do this time then?" Lemmy asked, to the huge shock of Roy, Wendy, Morton and Larry.

"Lemmy! Dad already told it eleven times! Eleven times! Last one just a few moments ago!" Poorly enough for them, Bowser had already heard Lemmy's question and started his whole monologue again, without giving any escape for the koopalings.

* * *

… That was kind of a long chapter… I had expected it a bit… shorter.

Anyway, I'm not that happy with this chapter. Especially the planet part on the beginning… Expect the three small planets being replaced by only one huge area in the coming chapters. I need for story purposes to get rid of the warp stars anyway…

Though, how did you like boss fight and Bowser's monologue? I hope I did not go too crazy with the monologue… At least you know now how Bowser managed to get the power and grand stars, though I wouldn't really believe his story… His own children tell more often the truth than he does…

Ah well, review please. I really want to hear your opinion on the boss fight. It was my first one, after all… And the boss fights have a big role in this fanfiction, so I could use advise… Next chapter, we will see Mario getting another power star, the introduction to miss captain, and probably, Rich regaining consciousness… It's gonna be fun…


	6. World 1: The battle for Stardock

And here's the next chapter! … Not that good again. Ah well, you have to deal with it.

Oh yes, before I forget. The music in this chapter… is from another video game series. Rayman, to be precise. … What? Nobody told me to stick with only Mario music! This music fitted the situation better than the Mario ones… Though I promise: Most music in this story come from Mario.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mario or anything else of his series. Nintendo does. However, I own Rich. The other OC in this chapter, though… I'm not certain who really owns it… Nintendo, because they made the species, or me, because I made the character… The Precipice comes from Rayman, who is owned by Ubisoft.

* * *

Mario was standing on a green grass planet. This planet though… it had places that looked burned, and several craters as well. Huge craters, as if the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs had fallen on this planet, and kept bouncing on it afterwards like a bouncing ball.

Zooming a bit out, the planet was between two landing stages of what seemed to be a big harbor. This harbor was called Stardock, a name that was also given to the galaxy itself. Large colossal buildings were standing on it, with possibly many goods in it. A yellow grind path went from the buildings to the several landing stages of this harbor, with between them several planets and wooden ships. However, like the planet Mario was standing on, the harbor was near total destruction. A lot of buildings had several gaps in them, and on several places was black ash, probably due some fires in the near past.

The lumas, however, attempted to rebuild Stardock. Lots of wood was being brought from one building to the other, and stone was being brought from the other to the one. The progress of rebuilding was, though, slowed down by several goomba guards. These guards allowed the rebuilding, but on the way Bowser wanted it. Each and every single wood was checked, and if it had not the Bowser symbol on it, it would get thrown away into a black hole near the harbor, and the luma carrying it would be scolded and forced to get the right wood this time.

"So you're the guy my brother talked about?" A purple luma asked. This luma was quite unique. First, she was purple. Most lumas were yellow, besides the baby luma of course. Second, it was clearly a she. She namely had a green ruffled skirt (and a green t-shirt). Lots of make-up were on her face, despite the fact she had no real hands to put it on… And finally, third, she was larger than most lumas.

"Your brother?" Mario responded. He had just arrived on this ship, and was now placing the young boy on the ground. For some very odd reason, no goomba on the harbor saw him, but several lumas did. They were watching this talk between Mario and the luma.

"I mean Lubba. According to his stories, a quite fat and small person in red came, helped him retrieving the power stars and then saved his special one." The purple luma answered.

"Yeah, though I think the 'quite fat' was just his imagination…" Mario rubbed over his belly to show that he was joking. Lune giggled upon that.

"And you're aiming to rescue your special one again?" The purple luma asked.

"Yes, and someone else's special one, and the someone else… and a lot of more people." Mario responded.

"… Well, as much as I want to help you, I can't. You see, in order to get to that giant monster, we need power stars as fuel. Poorly enough, we don't have them anymore. I was moving to here, Stardock, in order to refill my stock, but on my way, I met Rosalina. We talked about lots of things, like… Err, I should not give examples. I would just keep talking." The purple luma giggled again, before continuing. "Anyway, just as my crew and I were about to leave, that giant monster, then not so giant, came in his airship. He came without any form of strategy, and so Rosalina solely managed to completely, like, wreck his ship! You should have seen his face when his ship crashed into the observatory. It was sooo funny."

"Could you continue, please?" Mario asked polite. "I kind of need my time to save an universe…"

"Hey! Don't interrupt me while I'm talking! But fine." Luna sighed, before continuing. "Just like I said, the airship crashed into the observatory. The observatory remained unharmed despite that. I decided to help Rosalina to get that monster off, but he was as cowardly as a rabbit, and fled off. Then suddenly, he managed to get his hands on a grand star and freaking ate it! Then he became 'grand' himself, and after a little accident, managed to seal the whole freaking observatory away! For some very odd reason, five grand stars didn't, so I fled off with them. And now I'm the laughing stock of the lumas."

"You shouldn't have named retreating cowardly. Then we wouldn't make fun off you…" One random luma on the planet shouted towards the purple luma.

"Maybe I shouldn't have…" the purple luma muttered, before continuing. "Anyway, I moved to here, hoping the cannons on the harbor would defeat him… It didn't, and now the power stars of the harbor have been stolen as well, and my stock was used during the retreating. So…"

"So you want me to get them?" Mario asked, knowing that this subject would come from the very start of this conversation. In his first galaxy adventure, he had to, in his second he had to and now in his third he would have to as well. Though, something said to him it would be a bit different this time. The young boy, who was still unconscious, gave him that feeling… That, and the fact he had to rescue Luigi and Daisy besides Peach as well.

"You stole my words out of my mouth! Gross!" The purple luma nearly screamed, but didn't. After seeing Mario's surprised face, the purple luma explained. "It was a joke, if you didn't know that."

"I indeed didn't." Mario simply replied.

"Great… You will have a hard time on this journey if you don't recognize my jokes. But anyway, I see you already brought one power star back?" The purple luma asked. Mario nodded. "Well, that's one. Did you know by the way that power stars have the tendency to give themselves odd nicknames?" Mario shook his head. "For example, the one you collected named itself 'Hatching technology.' They usually base the nickname on what one has to do to collect them…" The purple luma explained.

"Instead of explaining that fun fact, can we please go on to save this universe?" One of the yellow lumas asked impatiently.

"Fine!" The purple luma responded. "Well, mr… … what's your name actually?" The purple luma asked.

"Mario Mario." Mario simply answered, getting odd stares from all lumas.

"Err… I have heard your name the first time." The purple luma responded, not realizing that 'Mario' was both Mario's first and last name. Mario, who had dealt with this kind of situation before, immediately added;

"Maybe, but Mario is both my first and last name." The odd stares from the lumas became even weirder when Mario said that.

"Game designers are very original these days…" The purple luma muttered with sarcasm. "Anyway, I'm Luna. And before somebody says anything, I know that the author isn't very original as well with names…" The odd stares moved from Mario to Luna, who had just broken a certain wall…

"But besides that, I think we should start the adventure." Luna started. "As far as we have managed to hear, the big monster has hidden three power stars here. We have one of them, and when we have the other two, we can move on to the next galaxy."

"I guess the goombas have stored the remaining stars in the harbor…" Mario muttered, but loud enough for all to hear.

"Possibly, but we don't know for sure. In the mean time, we will look after this boy…" Luna replied. "I think he will regain coconscious fast, and before that happens, I think we need to fix his clothes…" Shocked stares came from all directions, before Luna realized what she had said and what would happen if she did. "I mean… we need to find him some spare clothes, where he can dress in, and then we can fix the old clothes… Yes, that's what I meant." The other lumas rolled their eyes upon this correction. "But good luck with finding the power star!" Luna said, finishing the talk and hovering away with the other lumas.

Just as Mario and the baby luma planned to move off the ship and land on a landing stage, a big airship, bigger than the ones that already were here, appeared from what seemed nowhere. It attempted to find a spot to park without anything else, but upon not finding one, it remained in the air. Why was explained when one of the nearby goomba guards removed his shoe and picked out with its mouth a mobile, placing the mobile near one of his teeth. While nearby goombas and a few lumas fainted upon smelling the stench of the shoe, the goomba seemed to receive a message, Mario and the luma remained where they were, overhearing the conversation.

"What do you mean, remove one of our airships?" The goomba asked. It remained silent while he received the response. "Who do you think you are? King Bowser himself? We're not moving our ships because you need so desperately a spot! Did ya hear me? We're not moving!" Upon saying the last sentence, the goomba remained silent, before a smile appeared on his face. One of the nearby goombas (most of them still knocked out by the scent) attempted to ask something.

"What… did… they… say?"

"That they heard us and will not attempt to ask again." The goomba with the mobile responded. And indeed, they did not ask again. Instead, the airship moved, and flew straight into one of the other smaller airships. Oddly enough, the big airship remained whole, while the other… Let's say that nobody would ever guess that parts of it once belonged to a ship.

As one hammer bro. and a few koopas walked out, the goomba guard with the mobile ran up to them. "Who do you think you are, destroying one of our airships?" The goomba questioned furious.

"A hammer bro., one rank higher than you. And if you keep complaining, than let's say you will be flattened by my next reaction." Upon the hammer bro saying this, the goomba remained silent, except for a few curse words.

"Excellent. Now, how is the building of Bowserdock coming along?" The hammer bro. questioned. He gained a few angry stares from the lumas who were building, but the hammer bro ignored them.

"Perfect, sir. It shouldn't take them long to make this the best harbor in the galaxy…" The goomba replied.

"That shouldn't be hard to do, seeing as how this harbor is the only one in this galaxy…" The hammer bro. stated. "But that's not why I came here. I hope you have heard that Mario was spotted in this galaxy?"

"Yes sir, but he isn't on this harbor. If he was, the alarm in that building would go crazy…" The goomba pointed out to building. Unlike the others, this one wasn't damaged at all, or it was already fixed. However, Bowser's face was standing on every single, but also every single wood or stone, hinting that this building was damaged before and that Bowser's army used them as a base in this galaxy. A lot of goombas seemed to guard that place.

"Really? And what is Mario doing over there?" The hammer bro. pointed straight towards Mario, who couldn't help it to not taunt.

"It's-a-me, Mario!" Mario waved towards the hammer bro. and the goomba. Several goombas near Mario screamed as girls if they were boys, or as boys if they were girls, and ran around in circles. The hammer bro. responded with waving as well.

"Well, hi there Mario! You don't mind if we put an end to ya?" The hammer bro. asked while slamming one of his hammers into the goomba with the mobile, now the flat goomba with the flat mobile.

"It depends on if you can catch me!" Mario shouted while jumping on several nearby goombas which were moving until that happened.

"Well, in that case, attack! And no mercy!" The hammer bro. ordered. The goombas stopped running around, now starting to surround Mario.

**Mini-boss: Hammer bro.**: Minion that uses hammers, not getting them on his head like others. _(Music: the precipice, Rayman 2: the great escape. From the start until 1:23 after the start I would advise)_

Mario: 3/3

Hammer bro.: 1/1

As the goombas neared Mario, the baby luma started to make scarred sounds. However, Mario was ready to kick some major *Censored*. The first goomba attempted to charge into Mario, but he simply jumped up. The goomba looked dazed at Mario as the last one fell back to the ground, goomba beneath him.

Seeing the first attempt becoming a failure, two goombas attacked at once. However, Mario jumped up again, the goombas crashing into each other. Mario then fell back, first landing on one goomba, then on the other. Mario made a stylish summersault before touching the ground again.

Now that the second attempt was a failure as well, all surrounding goombas attacked. Poorly enough for them, a simple spin from Mario was enough to knock all goombas away. They landed on different distances; One landed near Mario, another one hit the yellow grind path further up, another bounced against a building, and even another one screamed like as if it was about to fall into a black hole, while falling into a black hole…

"What? This ain't possible! Koopas! Attack!" The koopas, obviously more trained than the goombas (if they were trained at all) swarmed together and moved closely to Mario. A half of them withdrew into their shells, while others picked the withdrawn koopas up and used them as a shield.

"So you do actually get training?" Mario asked truly amazed. This made the hammer bro. furious, but nearby lumas stopped with building and started instead cheering for Mario.

"Ha! Let's see if you talk like that when you are about to fall into a black hole!" The koopas came carefully closer, looking at Mario every moment and waiting for an unexpected move. Mario waited for them too. Just as one came near, Mario grabbed the withdrawn shell and lifted the shell, the koopa that was inside and the koopa that hold it up above his head. Mario shook the shell back and forth fast, trying to get remove both koopas of it. Those two started seeing airships circling around their heads, before both finally were thrown away from the shell. They landed painfully on the grind path, both unconscious.

"And now for shell surfing!" Mario exclaimed, placing the now empty shell before him and jumping on it. The shell started moving like a skateboard, but was a lot more dangerous… For people near the skater. The koopas screamed in terror as Mario crashed into them, sending them flying everywhere. After a short while, only ten koopas (without shell shields) remained, standing like ten pins in a triangle. Mario crashed into them with the shell as well.

"Strike!" Mario shouted as the koopas flew to everywhere.

"No, you only have nine!" One yellow luma shouted. Mario turned around, seeing that one koopa was still on its legs, shaking, but still on its legs.

"Couldn't you play dead or something like that? Then I would have gotten my strike!" Mario shouted to the koopa while 'surfing' towards it. The koopa screamed girlish as Mario crashed into the koopa as well. "Spare!" Mario shouted while he was bowing for the lumas now that all koopas were defeated.

Except for one. The hammer bro. himself. With a well directed hammer throw, he managed to shatter the shell beneath Mario's feet. Mario fell forward, but managed to not do this on his face. He still got damage, though.

Mario: 2/3

Hammer bro.: 1/1

"Sorry Mario, but this boss fight is against me and not my minions! So you don't have won yet until you defeat me!" The hammer bro. taunted while starting to throw hammers at Mario. Mario ran towards him and dodged every single hammer. Once he came up close, Mario spun around, knocking the hammer bro. down. The hammer bro. attempted to recover, but was too late; Mario had already landed on his stomach…

Mario: 2/3

Hammer bro.: 0/1

"Eurgh! I get you for this!" the hammer bro., now flat bro. exclaimed. "Everyone! Retreat! And don't forget me!" Some koopas came from the ship, apparently heard their leader's command. They lifted him up and carried him into the airship. The koopas and goombas Mario had defeated went as well into the airship, somehow recovered from Mario's attacks already. The airship quickly started moving into the air…

"You did it!" A few yellow lumas happy cheered. "You've managed to defeat our captivators!"

"Ah, it was nothing. Too easy." Mario told them. However, one luma mentioned something.

"Why is the music still playing…?" The luma muttered, not loud enough for anyone else to hear. Despite that, its question still got answered when the hammer bro. from the fight appeared on the deck of the airship. Apparently, the ship hadn't flown away yet. Two koopas helped the hammer bro. standing up straight, this due his flatness and the easiness of falling over because of that. Mario and the lumas looked surprised at him.

"Ha! You thought it was over already? No, I'm going to get you now and not later! Fire the cannons!" The hammer bro. commanded. All on the harbor looked shocked, and waited for the attack. It never came though, this surprising everyone.

"Hey! What's up with the cannons? I said fire!" The hammer bro. repeated. Still, nothing. Several lumas and Mario started chuckling at this. It was then that a goomba appeared on the deck, walking towards the hammer bro.

"Err, sir… There's no gunpowder anymore…" Was the timid report from the goomba, nervous to how the hammer bro would react. Now all lumas and Mario started to laugh at the hammer bro., who only got furious.

"What do you mean, there's no gunpowder? We brought lots of it with us and we didn't use it on our way to here!" The hammer bro. shouted at the goomba.

"We can't find it…" Was the goomba's response.

"You're lucky I'm wounded, otherwise I would have smashed a hammer on you… But fine! I will show you it's not unfindable! Koopas! Carry me down to the store room!" The hammer bro. ordered. The koopas lifted him up, and carried him away.

"Do you think they will find the gunpowder?" A random luma asked to Mario as it hovered to him.

"Probably not…" Mario muttered.

Suddenly, a goomba came screaming out of the guards' base. He ran past Mario, towards a landing stage. It started shouting, as if the world was ending and he was supposed to tell everyone of this.

"Alarm! Alarm! Mario is on the harbor! I repeat, Mario is on the harbor! He's here for like an hour! The guards that were supposed to watch the alarm absent! I walked by and heard the alarm! Everyone! Prepare to…" The goomba looked around, now mentioning nobody of his side was on the harbor anymore. Only lumas, and Mario. When the goomba saw him, he screamed loud again.

"Don't kill me! I have a wife and three children back home!" Mario felt guilty, and walked towards the goomba.

"Hey, don't worry. I won't kill… Auw!" Mario shouted as the goomba bit his leg.

"Tit yoush reallsh thins I weshanot lsying?" The goomba asked while still holding his teeth on Mario's leg. Mario shook his leg back and forth, attempting to shake the goomba off and succeeding in this. He fell off the harbor, straight into a black hole.

"So, now that's finished… Does somebody know where I can find a power star?" Mario asked, but it was not over. The hammer bro. appeared again on the ship.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" The hammer bro. said amused. "But we have found the gunpowder! Now prepare for your death! Fire the cannons!" The hammer bro commanded. After a while, something flew out of the place where a cannon was… It was the cannon itself!

"What the…" The hammer bro. muttered as the cannon crashed into the guards' base. "Hey! What was that!"

"You ordered us to fire the cannon! So we did!" Was the response from beneath the deck.

"You stupid *Censored*! I meant the cannon balls! Not the cannon itself! Now do it right!" The hammer bro ordered angry.

"Is not possible! We used all gunpowder to fire the cannon!" Was the answer on the command.

"*Censored*! Now we can only retreat! But Mario, just that you know, the power star was in the building that we just destroyed! Good luck finding it! Hahaha!" And with that, the airship finally flew out of the galaxy. (Stop the music)

"… Great. And this is my good costume…" Mario muttered as he went towards the pile of the building. He started digging between the trash, searching for the power star…

* * *

"Do you think we should leave him here?" One of the lumas asked at Luna.

"I guess so… We need to prepare the surprise for Mario anyway… And it's not like he will awake at the moment we go away." Luna answered, and with that, Luna and the luma floated away. Just as they were out of sight, Rich's eyes flew open.

"Eurgh… I feel like an house fell on my head… twice." Rich muttered to himself, moving his hand to his head. "Those toad things… I think they abandoned me the moment I was attacked…" This reminded Rich of what happened to him, and he shoot upright. He looked around himself.

"Where am I…?" Rich wondered, while his brain started thinking. "This doesn't look my room back home, so the whole star festival was not a dream… It also doesn't look like my room in the hotel, so the kidnapping wasn't a dream as well… I'm not on the place where I fainted, so I'm not there… I'm not in a dark room or anything like that, so I'm not kidnapped as well… This place looks dreamy, the clouds seem to be below me, so… I'm in heaven? I'm dead?" Rich concluded, now standing up on his legs again. He felt dizzy, but ignored it.

"Great. Now how I'm supposed to play that game that comes out later this year? I really wanted it…" Rich groaned, before realizing something else. "Wait a moment! This means the end? No future job? I did all that work on school… For nothing?" Tears started appearing near his eyes.

"Just great. Really great. I'm dead, in heaven, now crying that I lost my future. It can't be w…" Rich suddenly stopped with talking, before continuing again. "Nearly said that sentence… If I completed it, it would become worse." Just then, Rich looked down, mentioning his burnt clothes and body.

"Since when…? Wait a moment… Burnt clothes and body… Don't tell me it became actually worse and this is hell? What did I do to end up here? I should have gone to church!" Rich started complaining what he should have done, when he was interrupted.

"Hey! Cut the volume down there! Whoever you are!" a voice came from somewhere.

"Ok…" Rich answered shyly, before realizing something. He attempted to gather his courage to ask something to the mysterious voice. He was not the one to talk to strangers or to ask random things, but in this case, he had to.

"Err… Who are you?" Rich managed to question.

"Me? Who are you for not knowing that I'm a simple luma?" The luma responded, but remaining out of Rich's sight.

"I'm Rich? A human…?" Rich answered.

"A human…? Wait… Are you that burned unconscious human Mario brought with him?" The luma asked.

"I think the 'burned unconscious human' part is true, but who's Mario? And wait, unconscious? I'm not dead?" Rich now mentioned that he still wore his rucksack. He grabbed and opened it while the luma answered.

"Huh? What makes you think you're dead?" The luma asked.

"The fact that I'm on a place that could be heaven and the fact I was knocked unconscious or killed at the place where I was before?" Rich answered. He mentioned that everything was still in it. His DS, a few video games, that yellow star bit he finally managed to collect… Kind of funny how he got it though. He was just opening his rucksack to grab his DS, when the star bit fell on his head and landed in his bag. Lucky or unlucky, Rich couldn't decide. He went for lucky for now.

"Really? Thanks for the compliment! But don't you see the craters? If this was heaven, then I doubt they would be here." The luma responded. Rich looked around, now mentioning the craters. Rich accused himself for being again not too aware of his area. He usually didn't look at the details, unless if he focused on it. Not very helpful.

"Probably. I'm just glad I will still be able to play that game. But who's Mario? … And who are you? I haven't seen you yet…" Rich stated, upon which the luma flew towards him. Rich looked amazed at the luma. A star like creature, flying around without needing to care about something like gravity… This sure is an amazing world…

"Does this answer your second question?" The luma asked.

"Yes, I think… But for my first question, who's Mario?" Rich questioned again.

"Well… Wait, I thought he was famous in the whole Mushroom Kingdom?" The luma remarked. Rich moved his feet a bit nervously…

"Err… Let's say I don't come from there…" Rich said, eyes looking down. While he told the truth, he didn't tell the whole thing. If he did tell the whole picture, the luma would probably wonder how hard Rich hit his head. That, or it was a one way ticket to the madhouse… Likely the last one, if you asked Rich himself.

"I guess that explains it…" the luma said, before telling everything it knew about Mario and about the situation they were in now. After a long time, the luma finally stopped. Rich repeated the most important things.

"So, to tell it short; Mario is a plumber, who saves a princess from an evil koopa king on a daily basis. Less usual, he also saves the kingdom or the whole world. More usual, he's sporting with his friends, like his brother, the princess and another princess, and with his rivals, like the koopa king and two robbers. Right now, the koopa king is attempting to control the whole universe, having kidnapped the brother, the princesses and other people, like myself. At the moment, I'm in space near an intergalactic harbor." Rich ended, while thinking: 'Crap, I ended up in a world where something is happening that would not misfit in a video game. I knew I shouldn't have gone to that festival, I knew it…'

"I guess…" Was the response of the luma.

"Quick question. Is it possible for me to return to the Mushroom Kingdom like… right now?" Rich asked.

"I think you should ask Luna for that…" The luma told Rich, who after hearing this response immediately wanted to talk with her. While the luma guided Rich to her, something else had finally found something…

* * *

Mario puffed as he threw the last junk (which were parts of a door…) away that prevented him from grabbing the power star. He had received help from yellow lumas to find the star. The lumas cheered as Mario lifted the power star above his head. Now he only had to bring it back to Luna… As he walked away, the lumas started rebuilding Stardock and this time, without anybody forcing them to it on a specific way.

* * *

"Luna!" The luma that guided Rich shouted as she appeared in their sights. Rich looked dazed at her. While the luma looked kind of… well, cute, this one looked just plain odd in his sights. She was purple and… more fat than the normal luma… A whole lot more fat…

Luna turned around, stopping with whatever she was doing and saw Rich. "Ah, so you finally awoke! As you heard the luma, I'm named Luna, captain of this ship." As Luna said that, Rich looked at the ground, still dazed. He stomped on it, not believing what Luna told him. "Ah yes, while this looks like a normal planet, this is actually a ship!" Rich looked back at Luna, still not believing and wondering if this universe was not Wonderland… He came through a hole after all.

"So… Who are you?" Luna asked. Rich, now talking to a new person, suddenly became a whole lot more quiet for a reason not yet explained…

"Rich… Rich Bosman." Rich answered, not saying more words than needed.

"Err… Ok…" She looked a bit awkwardly at Rich. Somehow, she thought he would have been a whole lot more like teenager boys like his age… But shyness wasn't very usual for them… It was still usual, but not too usual.

"Rich? Didn't you want to ask something?" The luma questioned, surprised Rich hadn't done it yet. Rich seemed to concentrate, but just as he opened his mouth, Mario came storming into the conversation, holding the power star in front of himself. Luna looked amused at him.

"You already got the next power star?" Luna asked at Mario, ignoring Rich.

"Yep!" Was Mario's short reply, not mentioning Rich at all. Rich stood dazed at how fast and sudden the talk between him, Luna and the luma became one between Mario and Luna.

"Excellent! One more and we can move on!" Luna exclaimed happy. Rich stood simply there, remaining silent until the talk between Mario and Luna would end. The luma moved away, going to do something else than sticking around.

"I kind of had to sacrifice my best clothes for it though…" Both Luna and Rich looked surprised at Mario, not expecting those normal working clothes to be his best… As Rich looked at Mario, he couldn't help but find it odd that Mario was shorter than him… In fact, Mario was at least one head shorter… And Mario was supposed to be older than Rich!

"Err…" Luna started, still caught off guard by Mario's remark. Her eyes moved to Rich, and suddenly she realized something. "That lets me think that I still have to get a few spare clothes for you, Rich." Rich, who didn't really listen to talk, looked shocked but also dazed up as his name was referenced. Mario now finally mentioned Rich.

"What…?" Rich asked.

"Your burns. They are all over your body, and your clothes as well. While we lumas can fix them, I don't think you want to become naked… So you need some other clothes that you can wear in the meantime." Luna explained to Rich.

"I don't think that's really needed." Rich replied.

"Why not?" Luna asked.

"I have some spare clothes in my hotel, back in the Mushroom Kingdom… Which was something I wanted to ask; can you bring me back to the kingdom?" Rich asked. Luna looked uneasy when Rich asked that, before setting up an extreme happy face, like somebody that is in an advertisement attempting to sell you something.

"What? Don't you want to join Mario and become a hero by saving the entire universe?" Mario jumped back in surprise when Luna referenced him.

"With a hundred percentage chance of dying in this war? No, thanks." Rich responded, looking at Luna and Mario as if they were crazy. Luna because of trying to let him join Mario, and Mario because he was going on this way too dangerous trip.

"Well… I'm sorry to say, but I can't." Luna said full of gloom.

"What? Why not? I can't stay here! I'm supposed to get back to my family tomorrow! I will get killed here!" Rich asked, the sound of horror in his voice. He obviously didn't like the answer.

"Because at the moment, the ship can't go anywhere without power stars." Rich wondered for a bit what power stars were, but realized the luma had explained it to him. "And even when we get a few, we need to save other people as fast as possible, so we are not able to return you soon. We could attempt to send you back by using a warp star, but that would probably result into you becoming a comet." Luna explained.

"What do you mean, 'becoming a comet?'" Rich asked, still attempting to find a way back.

"I mean that when you shoot down, the gravity will increase your speed, until you crash into the planet, probably resulting with you getting killed. On other planets, the gravity isn't strong enough for that to happen."

"Great. So I'm stuck here. So, I will be dead for real soon anyway. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to think about how my gravestone is supposed to look like." Rich grumbled, walking away from Luna and Mario. Mario looked questioning at Luna.

"He's that boy you rescued, remember?" Luna stated, Mario searching back in his memories. He quickly remembered that after Robo Piranha was defeated, the boy had fallen on him. Mario grumbled at the thought, while Luna continued. "Apparently, he's A: shy and B: Pessimistic, or so I conclude out of his speech of his soon to be death. Or he just worries too much…"

The last statement let Mario think of somebody else that also worried too much, but not about himself but about somebody else. Toadsworth, or maybe better Toadsworry. Mario wondered for a moment how long it would take before he would hear from Toadsworth that whatever plan Peach had, was far too dangerous…

"I suggest we leave him alone for now. I would also advise a break, before going back on the power star hunt. If you excuse me, I have other things to do." And with that, Luna floated away from Mario. Mario disagreed with Luna, and went to find Rich…

* * *

And that was the chapter. It was full of surprises… for me. First off, the star mission. Originally, it was a stealth mission, with Mario infiltrating the base. Now you can hardly call it a stealth mission anymore… But this was more fun anyway.

Another thing. When I started the story, I thought it would be hard for me to keep the Mario characters (and Luna) in character, but in this chapter, it turned out I have more trouble keeping Rich with his shyness in character while still moving on the plot… Did not expect that to happen, because most of his personality is directly based on myself.

But this chapter is also full of surprises for you. The introduction of Luna, Rich's personality revealed for a big part… I dunno if you could make up from previous chapters that Rich is a bit pessimistic (Only a bit! He can be positive! He thought that him finally getting the star bit as lucky, not unlucky!). I think anything that hinted at it, could have been mistaken for him just having common sense.

Anyway, please review. If you don't want to, then first check the things below;

It's the only way to help me to improve this fanfiction; If you want this story to be good, then you should review. If you want my spelling and grammar better, then review (while pointing at the mistakes please)

You may flame, rant whatever. I will douse it with an ice flower and look what remains afterwards.

If this story gets at least 100 reviews by the time it ends (which will take a long time…), something extra will be added… And if I take a good guess... That will be like thirty and some extra chapters later. And with the amount I got now, we will not hit the 100 reviews.

Still not convinced? ... … Reread the above again, until you are. Next time, we will meet someone again… Who? … Well, wait for the next chapter, which will hopefully arrive soon after this chapter…


	7. World 1: The price for a ship

**Yeah, finally I've got this story down. But I'm not really wanting to continue, but yet, I must. Oh well... The story will be shorter than before... Read the author notes for that.  
**

**Disclaimer: How many times do I need to write this? … Fine. Mario and everything from his series are not owned by me, but by Nintendo. I own Rich.**

* * *

_(Music: SMG: sad story)_

"How the heck did I get into this mess…?" Rich muttered, searching a spot on the planet ship without anyone near. He needed time alone. Nobody interrupting him. Nobody trying to cheer him up. Nobody saying that he will see his family again. Nobody persuading him into doing something stupid. Simply, nobody to do anything.

The problem was though that there was a luma everywhere. And they were too happy. And too helpful. Most lumas that saw Rich's sad and angry face attempted to cheer him up. No success, of course. Only his mother was able to do that, and he wouldn't see her again for a long time. So he simply grumbled that they should ignore him, which they did. At least they were more understandable then those children on primary school, who would not leave until being forced to it.

Finally finding a spot, a large crater on the planet without any grass and luma nearby, Rich sat down in the middle of it. Tears, of which Rich was not afraid to say that they weren't caused by dust in his eyes, appeared on his face. Oh why… The thought flew through Rich's head, before deciding to answer the question.

It all started with that World Culture Lottery. This… organization came out of nowhere. On one day, it wasn't even there, the next, it announced a big lottery for the whole country. You didn't even have to pay anything at all to enter. But the prizes… The first prize was a trip 'to a new world.' Everyone (except for the pupils that refused to do their history homework) on Rich's school thought that they meant America. With New York in mind, most people wanted to win. Except for a few, like Rich. Rich didn't have an interest in the new things and preferred staying in his home country.

However, those few people entered anyway. The reason? The second prizes. Those contained ninety-nine coins for one million people. One million people! Why the lottery did only ninety-nine and not hundred and why it called the money coins and not euro's were two questions nobody could answer. But who cared? You could do a lot with them anyway, one option being able to buy two video games. And this was the exact reason why Rich entered. Even with his bad luck, he would have a good chance to get the money. And what could he lose anyway?

Much, was Rich's conclusion now. He was surprised when he learned out that he won the first prize, not the second. Rich, not wanting to go away for a week to a foreign country, refused to accept the prize. His parents' agreed with him. He was too young to stay alone without anyone to look after him that long. So instead, his family friendly asked if they couldn't swap the first prize for the second one at the people of the Lottery. Their response was that he should consider it again and tell them his answer after a week.

Rich firmly refused to do it however. Nobody could persuade him to do it. Rich found it quite odd though that more and more people attempted to do it. First his classmates. Some already did before, but suddenly, the whole class wanted him to go. Then his teachers. While some said that he would probably enjoy it, they all respected his choice to not go. After all, Rich was the best of the class and also the most obedient pupil, so why would they want to get rid of him? However, from one day to another, they all wanted… no, more like desired, him to go.

Rich dealt with this oddness, simply doing what he was supposed to do, while ignoring all the people that wanted him to America. However, he couldn't ignore his own parents. Yes, his own parents started as well. When Rich questioned what happened to the argument that Rich couldn't look after himself, they simply answered: "Oh, don't worry. You can easily look after yourself. We just had to confirm it…" Yeah, confirm it. Rich had already trouble with doing simply the washing-up! So how was he supposed to look after himself for such many days!

Rich still managed to refuse, but the arguments to go… In the very end, Rich finally accepted. Two days later, he was in Brooklyn, not in New York as he had thought. It all became stranger with that pipe…

"Hey, is everything all right?" A voice interrupted Rich's thoughts. A hand was placed on his left shoulder, covered by a white glove.

"I have no interest in becoming a Gary Stu." Rich grumbled, moving the hand off his shoulder. "Can you just leave me alone?"

Mario was taken aback by this response, but he could have suspected it by the way Rich took off. But that didn't mean he couldn't try, did it? The baby luma was playing with the other lumas, in order to prevent it's happiness to be hurt.

"Not really." Mario answered, but only received a rash correction.

"Wrong! You can by standing on the other side of this planet. Am I right or not?"

"Not." Mario responded calmly, but this only worked on Rich's nerves.

"Not?" Rich snapped. "What do you mean, not? You can. So do me a pleasure, and do it."

"Sorry, I won't."

"Fine. Then I move." Rich stood up as he wanted to walk away, but Mario motioned for him to remain seated. Rich didn't really want to hear Mario try to cheer him up, but did it anyway.

"While it's true I can walk away, I can't really stand to have anyone sad." Mario said, but the words missed their effect. This was proven when Rich replied.

"Well, then you have to learn to deal with it, because I will remain sad." Rich replied as he stood again up, but sat down again as Mario again motioned.

"Can you tell me at least then what's wrong?" Mario asked.

"What's wrong? Maybe the fact that somebody is shortening my life line with a rubber, not stopping before it reaches until a few days?" Rich answered, some tears starting to form in his eyes again.

"And why are you thinking you will die soon?" Mario questioned.

"Is that not obvious? Hint: It has to do with what you are planning to do." Rich nearly shouted back, while he was losing his control over himself.

"And you know that I've saved the world a lot of times?"

"As if that will matter…"

"Why?"

"Because this time, just when I'm here, that so called 'Great Evil Koopa King' will win." Rich concluded, regaining slowly control again.

"And the reason…?"

"None. It's just me being unlucky." Rich stated, looking down. Mario tried to search for the good words. Even Luigi and Toadsworth were more easy to get them out of their worry-mood than this boy.

"Listen. It's very unlikely something will happen to you." Mario said.

"And that was told by the general to the soldiers before they died…" Rich muttered.

"What general?" Mario asked.

"Don't know. I just thought of that sentence so that you would get my point." Rich responded.

"But even IF, and I say IF, something happens to you, then I will attempt to stop it before it becomes worse, okay?"

"No thanks. You have better things to do than saving a random boy. And if you excuse me, I'm going away now." Rich grumbled, now standing up and walking away. "And please ignore me now!" Was the last thing Rich said as he moved out of Mario's sights.

_(End the music)_

"Sigh… That didn't really work out…" Mario muttered. "Maybe the best thing is to collect the power stars as quickly as possible…" As Mario said that, he decided to search for the baby luma… After finding him, Mario went to Luna, who was busying with… making some kind of building plans? She jumped (well, floated) up when Mario neared, quickly taking all papers containing the plans behind her back.

"Ah! You should not sneak up at me like that! I have pepper spray, you know!" Luna shouted, before calming down. "I guess you are going to get the third star?"

"Yes…" Mario said, still having Rich in his thoughts. Luna mentioned that. "Don't tell me… You tried talking to Rich?" Luna asked, while giving the plans away to a random luma that brought them somewhere else.

"Who?" Mario asked confused. Despite former conversation, Mario actually never got Rich's name…

"I guess that's a no… But Rich is that human boy." Luna explained.

"In that case, I did." Mario simply stated. Luna shook her head upon this.

"I told you that you shouldn't. He simply has that air of 'Ignore me, please.' So we probably should. But to pass on, you have to get the last power star of this galaxy. From what I've heard, the big monster's minions have managed to put it randomly in the air…"

"But how does it float?" Mario wondered aloud.

"Simple: Every power star has the ability to ignore any kind of gravity pulling at them. We lumas can do that as well." Luna explained, before changing the subject a bit. "But the actual question should be: How do you get it? And I've got the perfect answer for this… Just wait a sec, OK?" Luna asked, but didn't wait for an answer as she floated already away.

While waiting, Mario mentioned Rich, who was now playing a video game on a DS. He seemed to rather enjoy it, not having his thoughts about this whole situation he was put in. Mario pondered for a moment if he should attempt to talk to Rich again, but decided against it, as Rich would probably move away when he would see him.

After a short while, Luna finally returned with what was a pink luma. It was smaller than Luna, but still had the fat form of her.

"I don't have to tell you what kind of luma this is, do I?" Luna asked, a small smile appearing on her face as she was about to tell of her plan. The pink luma seemed to be impatient or something.

"It's a hungry luma." Mario stated, recognizing it from his previous adventures. These lumas were quite odd. They always asked Mario for a certain amount of star bits, and then would transform into various things, from prize dices to whole galaxies. On his last adventure though, some would request coins instead of star bits. Apparently, coins contained lots of healthy things for lumas… But other species should probably buy actual food with the coins instead of eating them.

"Perfect. Then I don't have to give you the whole bio and all that stuff." Luna said amused, before continuing. " We found this guy here in one storage room of the harbor, wanting to eat all the star bits there… Unfortunately, the big monster used them already. It then decided to wait until the stock would be refilled, but that hasn't happened… until now. We found him when the lumas finally did it."

"Am I gonna get my coins, or should I move on?" The hungry luma shouted impatient, getting a little bit on Luna's nerves. She ignored him though.

"Oddly enough, when he finally got star bits, he decided he wanted coins instead. Ten, exactly."

"I can guess where this is going…" Mario muttered.

"At first, I decided ignore him. But when I heard of the flying power star, I immediately thought of him. So…"

"You want me to collect the coins." Mario finished the sentence. "Well, then I guess I should…" Just before he could say the last word, Luna suddenly moved her hands to Mario's shoulders, pushing him towards the landing stage.

"Yep, yep! Now off you go and collect those coins! And you don't need to return here for the Hungry Luma! He will be waiting somewhere else!" Luna said a bit too cheerful for Mario's liking, while he got thrown off the planet ship. It was like she didn't want him to be here…

When Mario recovered from the hit on the ground, he immediately ran off to collect those coins. This to Luna's liking…

"So, he's finally away?" A yellow luma asked Luna while hovering towards her.

"Yep! We can finally do the finishing touches! … That is, when Rich gets off as well. That reminds me: he still hasn't got some new clothes…" Luna replied.

"Should I ask him to get off and bring him new clothes as well?"

"Ye… No. I want to see what my crew is like. Give him those clothes, and then tell him that we saw an indentified flying object on the other side of this planet that can bring him back. Let's see if he can accept a joke from moi." Luna giggled, before the luma did as it was told. Probably needless to say, Rich shut off his DS, putted it back in his bag, then ran off the planet, after that, failed miserably to jump off the planet ship ("I blame the gravity!") and finally sprinted towards the other side of the harbor… Not knowing what other side the luma exactly meant…

* * *

"That… was… the… last… one." Mario muttered as he finally got the last coin. They were placed in the most unlikely places on this harbor, varying from being on roofs, near the ends of the harbor and even in a hearth in one of the buildings. The lumas should really consider to get a piggy bank instead of those hiding spots…

"But now… Where's that hungry luma?" Mario muttered, looking from the roof (the place where the last coin was) to everywhere, searching for it.

"You got all coins! Now givegive me them!" The hungry luma shouted fast from behind Mario, surprising him and causing Mario to jump… off the roof.

Mario: 2/3

Mario quickly got up, looking angry to the hungry luma. The last one didn't care at all, and simply flew before Mario again.

"Givegivegive!" The hungry luma shouted fast again, leaving Mario with no chance to answer no. All he could do was to give the coins, which he of course did. As the luma ate the coins, it became fatter and fatter and fatter and… until he ate the last one.

"I'm so full! I think I will finally…" The luma said, while glowing white. Mario took a few steps backwards, just in case that something would happen like an explosion. But that didn't happen, and the luma became purple again. When Mario saw that, he walked back to the luma.

"Transfooooooorm!" The luma screamed aloud, while suddenly bursting out a lot of energy. Mario flew backwards due that while the luma launched into the air, glowing white.

Mario: 1/3

"You always get it from your allies…" A yellow luma that passed Mario, muttered.

The white luma, now very high into the sky, transformed into… a small planet, one that looked like a… ship? A pink warp star appeared out of nowhere before Mario, which he used to get to the newly formed planet/ship. A few moments later, the last power star of Stardock was obtained!

* * *

"What?" Luna asked in surprise at what a yellow luma told her. "Mario already has the third power star? Luckily that we just finished work…" Just when Luna said that sentence, Mario walked on the planet ship.

"So you collected the last one? Excellent! Then we can move on! When Rich is back, that is…" Mario looked questioning at Luna, knowing very well that Rich would not leave the ship that easily. "Err… That's for later. But what do you think?"

"That I'm kind of hungry… Why?" Mario asked confused.

"Not that kind of thinking! What do you think of the ship?" Luna responded, and upon seeing Mario's still confused face, got a little bit angry. "Do you mean to say that you didn't mention the hard work we did?"

Mario looked down at the ship, now realizing what Luna meant. The whole planet had changed! Instead of looking like a planet where the extinction of the dinosaurs happened like… ten times, it now looked like Mario's head! The nose, the face, the hat… Err, except the hat. That one was green (thanks to the grass on it), instead of red. This caused to let it look more like Luigi instead of Mario.

"So? Much better spaceship than your previous one, not?" Luna asked, wanting to get a few nice comments. What she got though, was something else.

"Actually, it looks the same…" Mario replied honestly, and as few people might know, honestly brings you far… but sometimes, you fall directly in a hole before getting somewhere.

"What do you mean, the same! It looks much more better!" Luna shouted angry. "It looks precisely like you!"

"Except for the cap." Mario simply replied. Luna looked, mentioned, and decided.

"The color? That's easily fixed. But for now, I think we should make preparations to leave… Huh?" Luna said in surprise, looking at something behind Mario. Mario turned around, seeing… an UFO?

Though, this UFO was not a normal one, that is, as far as UFO's are normal. While it still had the typical dome, it was colored red with white spots. It looked a bit like… the cap of a mushroom. In fact, the whole UFO looked like one, this due the 'stem' beneath the dome. The stem had several windows in it, with behind one of them… Toadsworth?

Yes, but not only Toadsworth. There was a small, old looking, human in it. He had glasses and some white upright hair, punk style. This was in huge conflict with his white researcher-like vest.

The UFO, that was actually indentified as the Starshroom by now, flew around the harbor, searching for someone. That someone was Mario. When they spotted him, they send out a message to Luna (apparently, Luna had some kind of computer deep in the ship for these kind of things) with the question if they could land on the ship. Luna said of course yes, and so, the Starshroom landed on the ship.

"Master Mario!" Toadsworth shouted as he came out the Starshroom. "Have you rescued the princess by now?" Typical for Toadsworth to say…

"Err… Not by far…" Mario answered. Now the researcher punk came out of the Starshroom as well.

"And how are things going?" The researcher asked. That was a better question than what Toadsworth asked…

"Fine, Dr. E. Gadd. And how are you?" Was Mario's response.

"Ah well, I might have missed the festival, but if I look back at it… Maybe it was for the better." E. Gadd simply answered. While E. Gadd answered, Toadsworth looked around, examining the area.

"Maybe." Mario shrugged. E. Gadd chuckled.

"Well, at least I wasn't kidnapped. Though, I would have loved to examine a star bit… But the researching of the Starshroom was more important. I've managed to improve it a bit, and now I used this beauty to carry old me and Toadsworth to you. Quick healer is Toadsworth, for somebody so old…" E. Gadd said, referring to the fact that when Mario left, Toadsworth was nearly unconscious.

"Except when he faints from worries about Peach, that is." Mario added. E. Gadd chuckled again, while Toadsworth didn't hear it at all. He was more busy with discussing something with Luna… Mario could catch the words 'Rescue her fast' and 'As soon as possible', but nothing more.

"I feel really reminded." A mysterious voice said, some hold back rage in it. "As if, everyone knows that I'm also here." With that, all turned around to face… Rich. He was very tired from the sprinting, and a few sweat drops fell from his face. He was still wearing his burnt clothes, because, apparently, nobody ever reminded to tell him to get some new ones. You could tell from his face that he was far from being happy.

"And what do you mean?" Luna questioned friendly, but also a bit nervous.

"To hold it short: A luma tells me that they have seen a ship that can bring me back, sends me to the other side of the harbor, not telling me WHICH SIDE…" Rich laid a special accent on the last two words. ", so I ran to everywhere to find out, when the ship turns out to be a lie, but back at the main ship an actual spaceship arrives, that can bring me back. If I'm correct, I have a good reason to be angry." Rich's shyness had clearly melted due the burning rage that flew through his blood. Toadsworth and Gadd looked at each other in confusion, while Mario looked straight at Luna, who only got more nervous as time flew.

"That reminds me; What was the reason again that Rich was not here?" Mario said, having some sympathy for Rich. Luna giggled nervously.

"Err… For the reason Rich told you…" Luna said. "And before I forget, I have some coloring to do with some grass. So if you excuse me…" Luna said, hovering away as fast as possible, leaving all behind silent.

"Err… I'm pretty sure we haven't acquired with each other, young man." Toadsworth said, breaking the stillness. Rich calmed down a bit, which also meant that the shyness of him started coagulating.

"Rich Bosman, sir." Rich said, looking a bit down… In order to look at Toadsworth.

"So, if I heard you correctly, then you wanted to get somewhere with the Starshroom?" E. Gadd asked, leaving Rich confused with what the Starshroom was. E. Gadd mentioned that. "The space ship that looks like a mushroom."

"Yes." Rich said, not saying more words than needed.

"And that somewhere is…?"

"Mushroom Kingdom."

"Okay! Then follow me, young lad. I will bring you back to the kingdom in no time with this bea…" Gadd stopped in the midst of his sentence. The Starshroom… It was gone! Just. Completely. Gone. As if some kind of thief had stolen it like a car while they were speaking… Which was probably the most likely reason.

"This. Is. Not. My. Day." Rich said dumbfounded while looking at the location where the ship was supposed to be.

"That's not good… I wanted to finish that research project tomorrow…" E. Gadd said dumbfounded as well.

"Well, at least I can keep an eye on master Mario while he's rescuing the princess." Toadsworth had apparently less trouble than Rich and E. Gadd that the Starshroom was stolen. He then noticed Rich, and a light bulb went on in his head. He went towards Rich, circling around him as if examining him.

"If I may ask… What are you doing?" Rich asked, feeling a bit awkward being so checked out.

"Nothing too special. Question for you young boy: Have you some kind of phobia? Or something else like some kind of disease?" Toadsworth asked, while still examining Rich.

"Not really… Why?" Rich questioned, but Toadsworth didn't answer. After a few more circles, he went over to Mario, a very big smile on his face.

"Congratulations! A new party member joined your team!" Toadsworth said full of cheerfulness while Mario, Gadd and Rich looked surprised at Toadsworth. What was he doing?

"Rich is his name!" Now Rich's eyes became really big, because of the surprise or due the shock… Probably both. "Rich has more health than Mario does! However, he's a slow runner and bad jumper, and his stamina is no good. Rich can further not use the star spin, but instead as his own ability!" Rich was now both shocked and surprised, while others were just surprised. How did Toadsworth manage to get all that information by simply examining Rich? Was this some parody of some sorts?

"His ability is the Reflect Punch! With it, he can reflect back all projectiles back to their owner. Be warned though, that he cannot use it in close combat or against non solid things. In order to switch between Rich and Mario…" Toadsworth was interrupted in the middle of his sentence.

"WAIT ONE FREAKING SECOND!" Rich shouted in angry but yet in sadness. "What do you mean by 'Rich joined your party!' I did not! And you can't force me to do it!"

"Wait, what?" Toadsworth asked truly surprised. "You don't want to join? But what about the princess? The more people go, the more chance that master Mario will succeed. No offense meant to you, master Mario."

"None taken." Was all what Mario managed to say. He and E. Gadd looked at the conversation unfolding, not knowing what to do about it.

"And what about me? If I go, the more chance I will not survive. Have you thought about that?" Rich's emotions became more and more unstable as the conversation went on. He could explode or collapse any moment now under their influence…

"But…" Toadsworth searched for the right words to say, those that would convince Rich to go along with Mario. "But… the princess is important for the Mushroom Kingdom…" Toadsworth muttered. One could interpret this sentence on different ways: One way was that the princess was important, but Rich could be possibly as well. Another way was that the princess was more important than Rich. Toadsworth meant the first way.

But Rich interpreted it as the second way. That very moment, Rich felt like as if a big dagger was stabbed right through his heart, then removed, then stabbed again. He became silent, but even Toadsworth knew that this wasn't the silence of agreeing he had hoped for. This was the silence of being hurt.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that…" Toadsworth muttered, feeling a bit awkward. "Can you accept my apologies?"

"… … You're right." Was what Rich said, with a face with no emotions on it. This face was merely a shell for what went on in Rich's head. "She's more important…" His shell creaked as a few tears started appearing in his eyes. "Than me…" More tears. "Can… you… leave… me… alone… for… a… moment?" Rich didn't wait for a response as he ran away after asking it, leaving a dazzled Mario, E. Gadd and Toadsworth.

"If my psychology knowledge is right, then I think you hit a major hurt point on Rich." E. Gadd stated when Rich had moved out of their sights.

"Probably." Toadsworth said. "Ah well… Does somebody know when this ship starts moving? Mario has to save princess Peach as fast as possible." This earned him stares from both E. Gadd and Mario. "What?"

"Do we really need to say it?" Mario said, his anger under control. Sure, what Mario had seen from Rich could not be defined as friendly, which actually made Mario dislike Rich a bit, but that didn't mean that Toadsworth shouldn't ignore him, even if it was what Rich wanted. After all, Rich went through a hard time. It was only logic that he acted this way.

"Yes?" Toadsworth said nonchalant, upon which both Mario and E. Gadd face slapped.

"You just mentally hurt a young teenager boy." E. Gadd started. "Don't you think you should attempt to cheer him up again?"

"What? I apologized and he said he wanted to be alone. I'm only doing what he asks." Toadsworth simply replied.

"And if Peach said she wanted to be alone, would you do it?" Was Mario's reaction to Toadsworth's answer.

"No, of course not! I care a lot about her, like a father for his child! You just cannot…" As Toadsworth spoke, he realized something, which made him stop with talking for a moment. "I see where you're going, master Mario. Fine, I will try." With that, Toadsworth said two goodbyes to Mario and E. Gadd, and then walked over the now red grass. The logic of how it suddenly can be red and how it can be red in the first place, was far and far away…

"So... E. Gadd. What are you planning to do while remaining here?" Mario friendly asked.

"Well, luckily enough, I brought another project along with me. It's still in early stage before I can make it, but I think it will help you on your adventure." And so ended the conversation. Both walked away, E. Gadd to a place where he could experiment a bit, while Mario walked off to Luna. Not everything in this fanfiction could remain unexplained…

* * *

**And so, the seventh chapter ends. But, there's still the author notes… which have a lot to tell you.**

**First off, know what I said previous chapter about the hundred reviews? The secret part? Well, I've decided to cut it down to only fifty reviews. The major reason of this is because I will focus from now on only on power stars that I know what to write about. Those are mostly boss power stars and grand stars. Wait, let me rephrase that: ONLY boss power stars and grand stars. And every galaxy has at least one boss, but that doesn't mean… that I won't skip galaxies. As far as I know, the first galaxy of world two might get removed… Now that I think about it, it WILL be removed. It's too boring.**

**Another thing: I've planned to write another story. When I post it (Don't know when: I have the first chapter done, but it feels a bit empty…), it will automatically mean that this story will get even less updates. Though, I promise this story gets the main attention. Why? I can't do a certain world when I'm not finished this story yet.**

**About Rich… You finally learn a bit about his past, but there are some parts missing… And he's kind of overreacting. He's actually not one to do that…**

**Anyway, what we can expect next chapter… IS NEARLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THIS WHOLE STORY FOR THE SEQUEL. But beside that important thing, we will finally have the second big boss and the return of somebody… and somebody else.**

**What's the important thing? What's the second boss? Who will return? Who else will return? Will Toadsworth cheer Rich up? Will Mario find the next power star? Who's the thief of the Starshroom? How is it possible for the grass to be red? All these questions (with the exception of the grass) will be answered next chapter! And so I ended the chapter like an narrator that attempts to keep the public interested in a TV series that goes on for a way too long time.**


	8. World 1: Jumpa leg's bouncing planet

As a few might have known, the chapter had been finished since Tuesday, if I recall correctly. The reason that I post it now and not earlier, is because I wanted to either post another story or this chapter for my birthday. I failed to complete the other story, so here it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else from his series. Nintendo does. Though, I own Rich. Luna is questionable.

* * *

"Prepare for take off!" Luna commanded, sitting in front of a steering wheel, one that would not misfit in a museum as an ancient artifact. The explication of this was that Luna liked retro things, saying that they would be 'in' soon.

Mario and E. Gadd stood after Luna, who was surrounded by lots of lumas. All of them focused on one thing: to get the ship moving once again! The ship shocked a few times, causing E. Gadd to stumble, upon which Mario helped him up again. But, after a few minutes, the ship finally moved away from Stardock. Lumas that lived there all came to look to see the FM2 (Faceship Mario 2, the name came from Luna) leaving. Some waved with handkerchiefs, as the FM2 slowly hovered bit by bit away from the dock. Thank you's came from everywhere, leaving Mario questioning how many times he would hear it on this journey… And then finally, the FM 2 disappeared in the clouds that surrounded Stardock…

"…" Rich's tears fell on the ground as the ship moved into space. He was on a spot where no luma on Stardock could have seen him. He looked hateful at the small puddles that came into existence beneath him. Why was he crying? Rich had questioned his importance for quite a long time now. When Toadsworth said that the princess was more important, it was like putting coals on a fire that attempted to burn again. Again, because he had more times he was worried about this kind of thing. But, despite his crying at those times, he knew he shouldn't think that he was worthless. He had thought for a short moment that he had finally passed this stadium of questioning his worth, but apparently, he hadn't.

Maybe it was because he was stuck in a complete alternate dimension… That could explain his quick changing moods last time. He was not the person to become angry. Well, not to person to show to strangers he was. But now… He had a rage for three times, with only the first time being understandable in his own eyes. The other two though… He would have never reacted this way. And yet, here he was proving wrong to himself.

"Err…" A voice came from behind Rich. He looked around, spotting Toadsworth in the progress. Rich tried to not completely overreact again.

"You here to apologize? You already did, and it's not your fault. So, could you ignore me, please?" Rich asked, his voice sounding normal despite his emotions that were flying out of control in his mind. He was displeased as he saw Toadsworth coming to him anyway, cane in the hand.

Toadsworth considered to do what Rich asked, but reminded himself of the times Peach acted the same way as Rich did now. And when Peach acted like that, then he also didn't ignore her. So why should he do it now?

"Young man, despite the fact that I actually want to do what you asked, I cannot." Rich looked strange at Toadsworth, not really understanding it.

"Why not?"

"Because I got asked to help you out." Toadsworth replied seriously.

"Then you would do a perfect job…" Rich started, only to have Toadsworth interrupt him and finishing the sentence.

"By first asking you why there's something wrong."

"I'm not answering, because I get a whole pep talk if I say why." Rich replied, his emotions once again getting unstable. Toadsworth merely hold a grin, knowing exactly how to the information out him.

"What was the reason again that there's something wrong?"

"Because I feel worthless..." Rich answered, before realizing he never told the reason yet. His eyes became big in realization. "Hey!"

"People usually fall for that… Even though it's overused. But that's besides the point. Why do you think…" This time, Toadsworth got interrupted with Rich finishing off the sentence.

"I'm worthless? Because I can't do much. That's why."

"Well, in that case you can…" Toadsworth started, earning a straight stare from Rich. He was not going to join Mario, despite that feeling. "Err… what I mean to say, is that nobody is worthless. We all are important, on our own ways that is…"

"Sure…" Rich merely replied, before continuing. "I've heard that like a million times. And I know. It's just… I question what MY way is."

"I don't know that as well. I know that mine is to care for the princess. Some say though that I follow my way too good…" Rich got interested in that.

"What do you mean with that?"

"Well, some say I care, and more like worry, too much about the princess…"

"That explains why you're so wanting me to join Mario." Rich concluded, getting control over his emotions again now that they were not talking about it.

"Probably. I can't just stand that something happens to her… It doesn't make my life easier that something happens at least every month." Toadsworth chuckled a bit.

"No, that doesn't really help. But have you never thought about a way to prevent it from happening?" Rich's pessimistic side came out a bit.

"We had security systems once… But Bowser got through them anyway, making them only expensive. So, princess Peach decided to remove them. We only have a small amount of guards now. And the masters, of course." Toadsworth explained.

"Ah… In that way… Though, didn't you suspect that Evil King attacking during the Star Festival? You could have prevented a lot…"

"I actually did, but Peach decided to ignore my warnings anyway."

"They should have listened… Always think of the worst thing that could happen, unless it's too absurd for words. That's what I always say…" Rich said, having calmed down now. He looked at the sky, which was now filled with stars as if it was night. Maybe it was, maybe not. There was no sun or moon that could give a hint… It was quite a long time ago Rich saw stars in real life and not on pictures… And now he saw them in a completely different universe. Weird and odd, but also quite… fantastic to see them again.

"Well, maybe it's better to not always do that, but on a few times, it would certainly help. Though, about the princess…" Toadsworth attempted again, but Rich saw through it immediately.

"No, sir. I'm not going to join. I have to thank you for cheering me up, but that… No." Rich said, preparing to go them somewhere else on the ship. "But I'm going now. It's getting late, and I want to sleep…"

"Ok, young sir. Good night." Toadsworth replied, thinking about going to sleep as well.

"Good night…" And so Rich left, taking his rucksack with him. Rich didn't know where to sleep though, but one of the lumas told him of the quarters beneath the soil of the ship and where he could find the entrance to it. It was located in the 'nose' of the ship. A little disgusted of that, Rich went to it. After a few moments, Rich was sleeping in one of the rooms below, and after a few moments more, everyone was sleeping in the rooms. The FM2 continued to fly (despite nobody driving it) to somewhere, and one very small ship, that looked like a mushroom, followed it…

* * *

The next morning, the ship had come far by now. Space is empty is something you hear often, but not in this universe. The next galaxy already came into sight, but it was covered by lots of clouds. Those clouds were not normal though… They looked like… pants? No wait, they looked like some wool, weaved together. As time progressed, the lumas, humans and toad awoke, Luna being the first one mentioning the galaxy.

"Nice! We are nearing Seat Galaxy!" Luna shouted in happiness, as more and more lumas came out of the nose and went back to work. Mario came out as well, just in time to hear Luna saying the sentence.

"Seat Galaxy?" Mario repeated, having never heard of that galaxy before.

"Seat Galaxy is the galaxy where seats are made for… I dunno. But they are made there. The planets itself are made of all things that seats are made of as well, making them very soft… and sometimes bouncy. In short: it's one of the best places to relax, and would have been the best if one could get a pedicure there…" Luna said, drifting off to some daydreams of undergoing a pedicure… Before Mario interrupted the dreams.

"So basically, a galaxy made of seats. Got it." Luna was not exactly happy being interrupted, but decided to shake it off. The FM2 in the meantime neared the clouds made of wool, E. Gadd and Toadsworth arriving on the scene in the meantime.

"That's the galaxy princess Peach is in?" Was, of course, Toadsworth's first question when he saw Seat Galaxy.

"Possibly, but unlikely." Mario answered honestly. Sure, if Bowser was hiding there, then Peach could be find there as well. But, Bowser had an odd addiction to always hide in big castles, often being very hard to navigate. How one could live when he/she had to jump over lava more than ten times and face other deadly traps every day, was a question with an answer. Bowser had several backdoors in order to get out of the castles quickly and an actual living place as well. He wasn't just always there.

"What's up with those clouds?" E. Gadd wondered, before getting explained that everything in the galaxy is made of materials used for seats, including the clouds. E. Gadd got interested in that, going away in order to get some things, needed to capture the clouds for further investigating… He returned just in time to experience the FM2 moving through the wool clouds. Everyone that was not a luma was amazed at this, before FM2 finally got through it.

The ship flew to the first planet that it came across. This was a rather large planet, but not as big as Stardock was. One could get easy lost here though, with all the stockpiles of seats everywhere. An odd, mechanic thing moved towards the faceship. This thing looked a bit like a human, but yet not. It had a big vertical placed gear on what seemed to be its head, the gear moving straight through the head. Eyes were replaced by what seemed fuel gauges, and the hands by grabs. It had no legs, but instead wheels on its sides. The main 'body' was further metallic green.

"Do ya want some seats?" The thing asked in a metallic voice and with a slight accent, the thing being recognized by Mario as Gearmos.

"No thanks. I already bought one last week." Luna friendly answered.

"Need reparations then?" The gearmo continued.

"No, but…" Luna started, before getting interrupted by the gearmo.

"Here to deliver materials?"

"No, I'm not here for that as well." Luna replied, getting a little irritated.

"Need a job?" The gearmo asked this time.

"Err. Sorta… You see…" Luna got interrupted again, but not by the gearmo, but rather by a broom thrown by the gearmo. It landed straight on Luna's face.

"Excellent. Ya can start by cleaning this whole planet." The gearmo said, not mentioning the pain Luna was in.

"No, I didn't mean that work!" Luna shouted angry, the gearmo becoming a little surprised by this tone. "I wanted to ask if some kind of airship passed through here. A big wooden one?"

"Oh yes, I remember that one. One of the best customers I have ever had." Toadsworth, E. Gadd, Mario, Luna and actually just everyone with the exception of the gearmo seemed to be surprised.

"Best customer? You mean that whoever was on that ship, didn't attempt to conquer this galaxy?" Was Luna's reaction upon the answer.

"No, they didn't. The airship arrived, a turtle thing of my size came out of it, and said something along the lines of 'All your seats belong to us!', upon which I took out the seats and brought them to him. He seemed to be surprised about this, and suddenly didn't want the seats anymore. But I have dealt with this kind of situation before, and a few moments later, all seats were sold." As the gearmo said that, the little pointer in the gauge eyes of the gearmo seemed to move to a dollar symbol.

* * *

"Bowser Jr! What's the meaning of all those seats!" Kamek shouted, facing Bowser Jr. and pointing to a large stockpile of seats. Very different ones were present, varying from what could be easily thrones to small girly seats. Originally, this complaining was something Bowser would do himself, but due his largeness, it was probably better to just let Kamek do it, or so Bowser thought.

Bowser Jr. looked up, both a little nervous and ashamed, from whatever he was doing. "Err… That's a long story, Kamek…"

* * *

"Anyway…" The gearmo was not finished yet. "He took the seats with him, after paying all the money…"

* * *

"HOW MUCH?" Kamek shouted in panic. The King would not like that… Even if it was Bowser Jr., Bowser wouldn't like it…

* * *

"And was friendly enough to even put an extra donation to the galaxy by placing that robot thing on that planet." The Gearmo finished, one of his arms pointing to a cotton planetoid that looked a disc. Mario thought for a second, before asking something on a friendly way.

"Has somebody neared the robot?"

"Nope, we're all too busy with our work to care about donations. Some others say though that they have heard someone screaming for seats… Or help, one of the two." Mario's and Toadsworth's eyes got big upon hearing that.

"The princesses!" Toadsworth shouted.

"Or Luigi!" Was what Mario shouted in happiness. Wanting to get the job done as quickly as possible, Mario started walking on the green cotton floor, before being stopped by the Gearmo.

"Wait a moment, sir! Where're ya thinking ya are going? Ya can only enter this galaxy with my permission!" Mario then went on explaining the whole situation, from the star festival to this very point. "So… what ya are saying is that the donation is evil… That explains the appearance of those odd robots everywhere that tend to attack us… Well, in that case, ya can go to destruct that thing. All others from your ship may walk around here as well." With that, Mario went into the deeper parts this planet, moving out of the sight due the stockpiles.

"Hey, wait a moment. Where is Rich?" Toadsworth suddenly questioned.

"Still sleeping." Luna explained. "He had a bad day and is in puberty anyway. He's probably not going to awake…" Just as Luna said, the sound of a door being closed could be heard, Rich walking up to them. "until now."

"Err…" Rich started, finally in new clothes. He still wore jeans, but instead of the yellow sweater, he wore now a blue one. His rucksack was missing, probably left in the quarters. He apparently was in a normal mood now, as he lacked the courage to continue with his sentence. Lucky, Luna knew what he wanted to ask.

"Are you hungry?" Luna asked not unfriendly.

"Yes…" Rich answered.

"Ok. There's some bread left in quarter twenty-one. We lumas eat star bits, but I think that you don't want that stuff…" Luna said, guiding Rich back to the door in the nose.

"Not really." Rich replied, saying no words more than needed.

"By the way, how was your night?" Luna and Rich were now standing directly beside the door.

"Other than the fact I'm a bit disgusted that somebody went into my room to place these clothes and take my old ones while I was sleeping, I'm fine." It was then that E. Gadd suddenly remembered something, something very important.

"Hey, Rich! After you're done, can you go to me? I'm in need of some help…" E. Gadd said, leaving behind what kind of help exactly.

"Okay, I think…" Rich responded, before the door got closed. Toadsworth looked suspicious at E. Gadd.

"For what kind of help do you need him?"

"I need to do some testing with my latest project, and he's perfect to try it out on." Toadsworth looked shocked at the revealing of these plans.

"What! You're using him as a laboratory rabbit?" All lumas that were near the two looked shocked at the old professor as well.

"And what if I tell you it might give Rich the courage to join Mario? Even though it's not what I aim for, it has the possibility." E. Gadd attempted in order to convince Toadsworth to not tell it already.

"I keep silent." Was Toadsworth's short response. All lumas around them still looked shocked, but decided to simply continue. Maybe the experiment wouldn't be that bad… That, and Rich's outrages the previous day did not make them really like him.

* * *

"Is that a smaller robot?" Mario questioned as he saw an odd looking robot. It looked a bit as Bowser, only much smaller and mechanic. It was due the fact that it looked like Bowser that Mario thought that it could be such robot, which was actually called a mecha-koopa.

Mario had by now managed to get already to the second planet (with a simple jump from one to another). It was completely flat, and looked like some workshop. Gearmos were easefully working on new seats on assembly lines on the sides of the planet, backs turned to the mecha-koopas and Mario. Mecha-koopas, because there were more than just one. When one spotted Mario, it immediately started breathing fire, while walking slowly towards our hero. The robot looked really confident as far as it could, thinking about the praise it would get for destroying the foe of Bowser… Such good dreams…

Poorly enough for it, these dreams were literally shattered as Mario ground-pounded into it, resulting with parts of the robot flying to everywhere. Now all mecha-koopas mentioned Mario, and started attacking him… With the gearmos still working.

"It's always so boring here…" Said one in a mechanic voice. Mario managed to destroy another robot as the gearmo said that.

"Did ya expect it not to be?" Replied another. The mecha-koopas teamed up to take down Mario.

"A cool fight would be nice for once…" The first one wished. Mario mentioned the plan of the mecha-koopas, but there were far too many to just rush into them, and so, Mario instead started running around.

"Between who?" A third one questioned. The mecha-koopas looked dazed as Mario ran around them, but still attempted to follow him, remaining in the circle Mario was walking.

"Between good and evil, of course." The first one answered. The mecha-koopas fell straight into Mario's plan as they, while fire breathing, burned each other, exploding in the progress.

"Forget it. We will never see such fight, and never feel the results of it." A fourth one stated, just as a part of a mecha-koopa fell on its head. It ignored it though.

"You're right, like always…" The first one muttered as all mecha-koopas were destroyed. Parts of them were everywhere. Mario had trouble to navigate through them, but in the end, jumped towards the next planet.

* * *

"Finally ready?" E. Gadd asked not unfriendly as Rich came back to the deck, closing the door behind him.

"I guess… But what do you need me for? I might be smart, but you're the professor." Rich questioned, not really knowing if he should trust this actually.

"Don't worry. I've already tested it a few times." E. Gadd assured. Nobody noticed the fact that the door to the quarters was opened and closed again with a slam.

"Okay…" Rich said, before realizing the oddness of the sentence. "Wait a moment! 'Already tested?' You're going to use me as a laboratory rabbit?" E. Gadd didn't answer and simply pulled out one hair of Rich. "Ow!"

"Kind of." E. Gadd chuckled. "But all experiments were successful, including the ones on myself. It's hundred percent safe. I only need to see how it works on a humanoid teenager. Just remain here, and you will see." E. Gadd said while walking away from Rich.

"But why do you need my hair and why do I need to stay here?" Rich said, despite his unwillingness remaining on the same spot. One could hear now that something fell on the floor in the quarters…

"Like I said, don't worry." E. Gadd picked up a small device out of his research coat.

"When they say don't worry, that's when I worry the most." Rich mumbled. E. Gadd placed the device on the ground, where it quickly developed into a huge machine, green numbers on a few screens. E. Gadd putted Rich's hair somewhere in the machine, and E. Gadd pushed a green button. A few seconds later, Rich vanished suddenly, only to reappear near E. Gadd and the machine. He looked around, a bit dizzy…

"I don't feel good… What happened…" Rich said weakly, having trouble to remain on his feet.

"You've just been teleported! And as far as I can see, nothing is wrong with you!" E. Gadd exclaimed enthusiastic, while Rich stumbled to the ground. "Except that you're dizzy… But that's something that always happens the first time if one gets teleported."

"How do you know that, except that it sounds kind of cliché…" Rich said, trying to get back up.

"Everything that I teleported were dizzy afterwards, including myself…" E. Gadd chuckled. Rich finally managed to get back up, but was still weak in the legs.

"But how does that thing work…?"

"Simple. This Tropelet 2 can teleport anything to near itself, as long as it has data on it. In order to give that data, I used your hair which was full of DNA to give it the right data about you. Afterwards, it's just a simple press on the button. How it does that is way too complicated to explain."E. Gadd explained.

"But how come my clothes, not having my DNA, get teleported as well?" Rich questioned, now fully restored again.

"That one took me a long time… Lucky, I was alone in my lab… But again, too complicated to explain." E. Gadd said with a small frown on his face.

"I don't wanna know…" Rich answered. He looked for no reason to the door to the quarters, when it suddenly got opened, revealing something what seemed to be a beanish. It was wearing brown trousers, a purple shirt with white stripes horizontally, a hat that you would see on a French painter, and a purple mask. It had further… Rich's rucksack!

"Hey! What're you planning to do with that?" Rich shouted, standing ready to attack, but also to run away. He was not going to give that rucksack away that easily, but on the other hand… How strong could this thief (what Rich assumed him to be) be?

"Boo! The Shadow Thief caught in full sight! But I'm not going to fight, see?" The Shadow Thief said, making a run for it.

"Hey! Get back here! Stop the thief!" Rich shouted while running after the thief. The thief jumped on the planet with the seat stockpiles, before running away. Rich did so as well, just as Toadsworth appeared. He looked in amazement at Rich and then at E. Gadd.

"When you said that the experiment would encourage Rich to help Mario, I didn't think it would be this successful! My compliments, professor." Toadsworth said amused towards a dazed E. Gadd. This event kind of happened too fast for him…

* * *

In the meantime, Mario had finally arrived on the last planet. Mario looked around, but didn't see the robot that had somebody captured. He saw an odd looking mushroom though… It seemed to be made of metal, and it's hat had several spirals. Mario picked it up. Completely out of nowhere, a spring appeared around Mario.

Mario transformed into spring Mario!

Mario knew this thing from his previous adventures, and didn't really like it. It was kind of hard to navigate the planets with this thing… Mario jumped around, before making one big jump. When he landed back, he felt for a moment a huge earthquake on the planet, before the sound of landing came into his ears.

"Nobody jumps higher than Jumpa-leg! Not allowed! Error! Error! Must be Mario!" A robotic voice came from the other side of the planet. Mario jumped around on the disk planet, only being able to move left and right for some odd reason, when he saw a huge robot… It had very long legs, seven times as big as Mario, and a dome as head. This dome was made of glass on the upper part, revealing a power star in it. The robot was perfectly symmetric, with the head in the middle. The one that was supposed to be captured by this thing was nowhere…

"Exterminate foe immediately! Process, start!" The voice continued.

Boss Battle: Jumpa-Leg: Best (and only) jumper on the planet.

Mario: 3/3

Jumpa-Leg: 3/3

* * *

As the boss battle started on that planet, on another one, Rich finally managed to corner the Shadow Thief, so that he had no escape.

"Boo! The great Shadow thief captured? No, this is all my master plan to get rid of the one that follows me, see?" Rich stopped in his tracks, realizing what the Shadow thief planned… Attacking him!

"Err… Can't we debate about this by some cup of tea?" Rich questioned, not wanting to fight. Oh, how did he get himself stuck into this… He really should have thought this over before acting… But then again, video games are expensive these days, and in that rucksack were his video games. And without them, he would have nothing to do while Mario saves everyone. He couldn't afford to lose them.

"No, we cannot, see?" The shadow thief responded, placing Rich's rucksack in a corner and getting out of nowhere a big sack, threateningly swinging it.

"I don't see it!" Rich responded in fear.

"… Then I make you see it, see?" The shadow thief responded.

Mini Boss: Popple; the so-called Master Shadow thief.

Rich: 4/4

Popple: 3/3

* * *

_(Music: Digga-leg, SMG 2)_

Jumpa-leg jumped into the air, leaving Mario behind who was now just bouncing around. Mario wondered when it would come back down, but it somehow managed to levitate in the air. Suddenly, a red flash-light on the robot started glowing, the light falling on the planet. The robot then hovered around above the planet, searching for where Mario was.

Mario was not the dumbest one and attempted to remain out of the flash-light, in which he succeeded. However, the robot never came down, and even with the spring power-up he could not reach the robot. There was probably only one way to him down again… Mario bounced over to the light, after which alarms went off. Jumpa-leg fell back in an attempt to crush Mario, but he quickly moved out of the way. Mario then jumped on the robot itself, bouncing slowly towards the glass dome… and ground-pounded on it.

Mario: 3/3

Jumpa-leg: 2/3

Some glass shattered, but nothing more than that. Jumpa-leg jumped again into the air, doing the same stuff again. Mario moved again to the flash-light, the robot fell back, Mario moved away again and… a shockwave was made as the robot landed on the planet! Mario was caught off-guard, and the huge blue shockwave hit him, sending Mario flying a bit.

Mario: 2/3

Jumpa-leg: 2/3

The power-up disappeared while Mario landed on the ground, and Mario had to find another spring mushroom. Otherwise, he couldn't climb Jumpa-leg… Jumpa-leg jumped up again, and did the same stuff. However, Mario attempted to stay out of the light while running around the planet, searching for a new spring mushroom. It had to be somewhere… Poorly enough, the flash-light managed to caught him before Mario could find a new mushroom. Mario managed to dodge the crush, but the shock wave was too big for Mario to jump over it. Mario got hit again.

Mario: 1/3

Jumpa-leg: 2/3

Mario fell back on the ground. One more time, and it would be game… No, fanfiction-over. Jumpa-leg jumped again, but now Mario found a new mushroom. It was randomly placed, but it was still there. Mario picked it up and again transformed into Spring-Mario, just in time as the flash-light discovered him. Mario mentioned this, and dodged the crushing Jumpa-leg. Now with the spring, Mario could jump over the shock-wave and climb on the robot. The glass shattered more as Mario ground-pounded again on it.

Mario: 1/3

Jumpa-leg: 1/3

"Error! Destruction near! Last_ start!" The robotic voice stated, while Jumpa-leg jumped again into the air. Mario moved to the flash-light, Jumpa-leg fell back, Mario dodged, shockwave appeared… All the same things all over again, but Jumpa-leg jumped immediately back into the air, before Mario had the chance to jump on it. The flash-light shined again, and Mario attempted to bring Jumpa-leg back by moving into it, not knowing what else he could do. Mario narrowly dodged the attack and the shockwave that came after it.

Apparently, Jumpa-leg's program thought that a second jump would be enough to use as a 'last defense', as it didn't jump up again. Mario quickly used this to his advantage, and a few moments later…

Mario: 1/3

Jumpa-leg: 0/3

_(Stop the music)_

It exploded into a million pieces. Mario could swear he heard someone screaming, but didn't give it a second thought as he picked up the power star, which, despite the explosion, was completely unscratched. Like Luigi, who was a prisoner in Jumpa-leg and was flung into the sky when the robot exploded. Gravity in this universe was very weak, but it was strong enough to pull Luigi back, on a certain someone's head…

"Finally!" Luigi said, having already recovered from the explosion. "I thought for a moment I would never get out… of whatever I was in…" Luigi looked around, searching for the one that had freed him. "That's odd… I thought I would see Mario…"

"Down here!" Mario's muffled voice said. Luigi looked down, mentioning his brother… on who he was currently standing on.

"Err, sorry bro." Luigi apologized as he moved off Mario. Mario stood up, but only fell back again as Luigi hugged him tightly, tears raining on the ground. "Mario!" Luigi shouted out of happiness and relieve. Mario returned the hug, finally having been returned with his long lost brother… Ok, not that long, but still. After what seemed hours, both let go off, while they walked back to the FM2, talking about what happened the past days…

* * *

_(Music: Rookie and Popple; Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga)_

"I see what you mean! I see!" Rich shouted in panic as he ran around in circles (the ironic…), Popple following close on Rich's non-existent tail, trying to ram into him.

"Only me could be so lucky to have such easy opponent, see?" Popple chuckled evilly. As they ran a few more circles, Rich got pretty tired. If he did not do anything fast, then he was at the mercy of a thief… That stole his video games, that cost a fortune these days! Realizing this, Rich continued his route. Did you really expect him to do something else?

"Huff… Puff…" Rich huffed and puffed, giving away he was tired. As one might know, signaling you became tired was the last thing you wanted in a fight. Popple mentioned it, and saw Rich slowing down. Now he was running faster than Rich, which resulted as him finally ramming into Rich.

Rich: 3/4

Popple: 3/3

"Ow!" Rich said as he wiggled a bit, attempting to not fall down. Popple used this to get another hit on Rich, something he easily succeeded in.

Rich: 2/4

Popple: 3/3

Rich fell over to the ground, crashing hard into it. He groaned because of his pain, upon which Popple laughed again.

"Now you know why you shouldn't mess with the great shadow thief!" He continued with laughing, not mentioning that Rich climbed back up, the words of his dad echoing through his head like light in a diamond.

"You cannot always run, you have to fight sometimes!"

"But they always result with me getting hurt… With running, I can hopefully get away fast." Was Rich's response always…

But right now, he couldn't run away. He wanted to, but he didn't also want to lose his video games… So he had to use it, despite not liking to fight in reality. It was his last chance. Rich concentrated on his right arm, focusing energy into it.

"I'm going to let you taste the ground, see?" Popple said to Rich, while attempting to ram into him again. Rich dodged narrowly, while still storing energy. He had to make Popple throw something at him, otherwise, this fight would get bad results.

Popple in the meantime decided he should change his tactics. Rich seemed to figure out how he could dodge Popple's rams perfectly, and that was no good for the shadow thief. Instead, he picked up his sack (something he had been carrying on his back the whole time… He's got a better stamina than you would think) and opened it. Knowing the sack like his pockets, he started to get random things out of it and then threw them at Rich. Most of the time, it was a coin, but on a few times he got a nearly exploding bomb-omb or poison mushroom.

Rich dodged all what Popple threw at him, glad to see that his tactic would work this way. He felt that his arm was ready for it, and continued to dodge (getting hit by a few coins, that oddly enough did not hurt him) until a bomb-omb was thrown. Rich simply waited for it till it got close enough. When that happened, Rich swung his right arm, which was suddenly glowing yellow, into it. The direction of the bomb-omb got turned around, flying straight backwards to the sender. Popple had not expected this, and the bomb-omb exploded in his face! Rich's arm stopped with glowing though.

Rich: 2/4 (Coins also didn't heal him, before you say anything)

Popple: 2/3

Popple, now really the 'shadow' thief due the black soot, got immediately angry. "I'm not liking that, see?" Rich was not intimidated by Popple, and prepared another reflect punch. Maybe he had a small chance of winning… And the worst thing that could happen is that Popple got away, something that could only be prevented by beating this thief.

Popple did not realize what Rich was doing, but figured out that another throw attempt would likely result the same way. As such, he closed his sack and swung it around himself, and again, and again… until he rotated very fast. He moved towards Rich, who could do nothing else than running away from this spin attack, the attack done the same way as a silent hero in green would do. Rich ran towards one of the stockpiles inadvertently, with Popple following him close, not getting dizzy at all. Rich dodged out of the way, Popple crashing into the stockpile. A seat fell down on the ground, were it broke.

"Maybe…" Rich thought as his arm was again ready for action. Rich moved towards another stockpile (the stockpiles surrounded the area, with the exception of one exit) and dodged Popple's spin attack again. Popple again crashed into the stockpile, and a seat fell down. Rich had counted on that and his arm glowed again, hitting the seat in the progress which flew towards Popple. The sudden damage caused him to stop spinning.

Rich: 2/4

Popple: 1/3

This went no good for the master thief. If it continued this way, that teenager boy would actually defeat him! That is worse than Mr. Red and Mr. Green beating him again! While Popple thought of another attack, Rich prepared his arm again.

"I'm going to defeat you, see?" Popple shouted, only getting a taunt back.

"No, I'm going to defeat you, see?" Rich reused Popple's words. This only made Popple mad, who now decided that throwing his sack would do the job. He did so, but only got his sack reflected straight into his face, knocking the thief out.

Rich: 2/4

Popple: 0/3

Rich looked down at the unconscious body of the thief, picking up his rucksack in the meantime.

"And that's why you should never steal…" Rich said, panting due exhaustion. "Now, let's see… Maybe I should give you to the police…" Rich thought, not mentioning Popple regaining conscious. "I should." Rich decided, only to see Popple escaping by thrilling through the ground like a ground drill. His sack was taken along with him. Rich looked dazed for a moment.

"… … Beep." Rich muttered, before realizing what he had actually done. He had knocked-out a thief! A thief, a person that didn't follow the rules! Something Rich really hated… He always followed the rules, yet, others didn't seem to care about them… But he defeated a thief! And if he hadn't run at the start, he maybe had gotten away without any damage! And yet, thieves were usually strong!

Rich prepared to leave, before feeling… something. Something in him resonating to something else. And this something else felt… evil. Dark. Hateful. And this presence… it felt like it was behind Rich. Rich turned around in order to see this presence, muttering in surprise.

"Huh?"

* * *

Cliffhanger! Mwoehaha! I should mention that the cliffhanger was the most important thing that happened in the chapter, but you won't figure out what happened in this chapter till the next one... (Odd way to say it, not?)

And so ended this major Rich chapter... Next chapter is more Mario focused again, despite the 'Huh?'. Found the Tropelet 2 (Wonder where I got the name from?) unnecessary? I say to you, the reason why it's here is to help you out... What I mean with that, is something you will not know until the next chapter...

And whoot! Luigi is rescued! ... Will take some time though before I've a star mission for him... I think the first one is in world 2... But don't worry: we have only two more galaxies for this world, namely a planet that we have seen before somewhere (which is the galaxy for the next chapter) and a Bowser Jr. fortress.

For those wondering about the other story I mentioned in the author notes before the chapter, if you really want to see it, then go to my profile and answer the poll. For others (and the previous ones as well), review.


	9. World 1: The shroobs' hungry experiment

**Merry Christmas! As a present for you, here's the next chapter of SMG 3! Now, I really would like it if you returned the favor by reviewing… *Shot down***

**Not much to say, other than that this story is far more popular than my other story…**

**Disclaimer: Read the previous chapter for that, please.**

* * *

"You say what?" Luna shouted when E. Gadd told her about Rich. "He left to regain his rucksack and went to the first planet? That's no good…"

"Indeed no good." The gearmo was on the FM2 as well, discussing the situation. "The planet is known by people for getting lost easy. Ya enter the wrong way, and it takes several hours to get out. Even we gearmos get lost often."

"But that means master Mario is lost somewhere on this planet as well!" Toadsworth shouted in panic, because a lost Mario equals to him not being able to rescue Peach. And that was a problem for the old advisor.

"No. He took the good way. That teenager took the wrong one." The gearmo stated, which was proven when both Mario with a power star and Luigi arrived on the scene. Mario had told Luigi everything about what happened, and Luigi had told Mario that he was knocked out while he was bravely attempting to save the princesses, and then awakened in Jumpa-leg. Of course, Mario questioned the bravely part, but decided to let it go for now.

Mario looked questioning at the group that was together, before jumping into the conversation.

"Has something happened?" The question let everyone look at the two of them. Toadsworth was full of happiness that Mario was still intact and that Luigi was saved.

"Master Mario! Master Luigi! You don't know how happy I am to see you again at this moment!" Toadsworth said glad. While he had hoped on the princess, Luigi was good as well. He would join Mario, that's something he knew for sure. Maybe the right words were needed, but he would.

"Err… Less happy than when the princess is rescued?" Luigi guessed.

"… Yes. But that's beside the point." While Toadsworth said that, Luna hovered over to the man in green.

"I guess you're Luigi, right?" Luna caught Luigi a bit off guard with that question, but he still answered.

"Yep. And you're Luna?" Luigi responded friendly but a little bit shy. Luna simply nodded.

"Sorry I interrupt the introductions…" E. Gadd stomped with his feet on the ground to get attention. "But I think we're forgetting Rich." Mario and Luigi looked in confusion towards the others, Luigi more than Mario because he hadn't met Rich yet. He had only heard from him from Mario.

"What?" Mario questioned. The others now realized that the heroes hadn't heard from the shocking news yet, and as such… they hold a party? Oh wait, they told them the news. While they told them it, Mario nodded his head to show he understood it, and so did Luigi.

"So… Popple managed to get here? How?" Was Luigi's logical thinking at work. While nobody on the ship knew that the shadow thief was actually called Popple, Mario and Luigi managed to figure it out when told how he looked.

"Maybe he went along with us as a stowaway and stole the Starshroom afterwards…" E. Gadd theorized.

"Possible. But what matters is that Rich is lost on the planet. I mean, he still hasn't returned yet…" Luna stated.

"Can't we just shout at him and ask where he is?" This question came from Luigi.

"No. This planet holds back most sounds that occur in the middle of it. There could even be thunder, and we wouldn't be able to hear it. Ya can scream what ya want, but ya will not find Rich." The gearmo said matter-of-factly.

"Wait! I have the perfect solution for this!" E. Gadd shouted. All eyes turned towards him, waiting for the explication of whatever the perfect solution is. It never came though, as E. Gadd quickly ran over to the Torpelet 2 and activated it… With Rich as aim to teleport.

"What's that thing?" Luigi wanted to ask, but the professor simply motioned for him to remain silent while the machine started to work. Soon, Rich would be rescued from the maze.

Or so E. Gadd thought. The truth was that the machine did not work. A simple error showed that.

"An error? What kind of error?" E. Gadd questioned while everyone (except the gearmo for some reason) came over to check the machine out. He started to push all kinds of buttons and what not, but the machine never said what the error was. Just… error. E. Gadd became more frustrated as the error remained on all screens, but of course that didn't help at all. In the end, E. Gadd gave up.

"An error… Just now…" E. Gadd fell on his back, sitting while remaining dazed on how it could happen. When Luigi again asked the question from before, E. Gadd explained to them what he had explained to Rich. As soon as he finished, one person could not dare to not question something.

"How was this… thing supposed to give Rich the courage to join master Mario?" Was the question that came, of course, out of Toadsworth's mouth.

"Simple." E. Gadd started, despite the glares both he and Toadsworth got from Luna and Mario. "This thing was aimed to bring somebody back while he or she was in a dangerous situation. If Rich knew that, he might have joined Mario in the adventure."

"In that way…" Toadsworth muttered, just before Luna spoke.

"Nice and all, but that's not going to bring back Rich. And the longer he's out there, the more dangerous. Somebody suggestions to find him?" Mario nodded, before stating he would go and check the maze himself. Toadsworth didn't agree with that plan, as it would take some time for Mario to return. A few stares were enough to make him silent. Then Mario went off to Stockpile planet. After what were a few hours, Mario finally returned… With Rich's rucksack. And an unconscious Rich.

"What the…" Luna started, but did not continue.

"What… happened?" Luigi said dumbfounded while Mario placed the body on the ground.

"I dunno. I found him in this state in an area where I think a battle was fought. He had his rucksack, so he might have defeated Popple or something like that…"

"But how did he get knocked out then?" Luna questioned while looking at the body.

"I'm not sure, but… his legs feel rather cold." With this remark of Mario, all looked at him, not understanding what that was supposed to mean. Mario noticed that. "I mean, his legs feel like they got frozen some time ago."

"Which means…" Luigi started, waiting for Mario to finish. Mario never did though, even him not knowing a thing about this, despite all the adventures he had in the past years.

"Not meaning to sound rude, but… shouldn't we continue to the next galaxy? Princess Peach cannot wait too long. And princess Daisy too, of course." While a few wanted to scold Toadsworth that he did not care about Rich, all realized he was right. The adventure should continue, they couldn't wait for Rich to awake again. As a result of this, the gearmo went back to Stockpile planet while the Faceship Mario 2 took off. Onwards to the next galaxy…

* * *

"I think we better pass the next planet." Luna was discussing something with Mario and Luigi. Luigi had quickly decided to help his brother out, though a few arguments were needed (Princess Daisy is kidnapped as well, you'll get some recognizing if you help this time, etc.). "The species that live there are known for being extremely aggressive. They also have high-technology."

The ship was currently somewhere in mid space, within sight a lot of stars and galaxies. A luma was steering the wheel (though that was apparently not really needed; the ship had an automatic pilot), Mario, Luigi and Luna were somewhere near the wheel, Toadsworth was thinking about how to thank Mario when he rescued the princess, E. Gadd was examining the Tropelet 2, and Rich finally was beneath the decks, a few lumas watching him.

"But what's the planet called?" Mario asked, a bit curious. Luigi on the other hand had no interest in it. Extremely aggressive means dangerous, and that was something Luigi preferred to evade.

"13D, or something like that…" Luna stated. The ship neared a planet, which was probably 13D. This planet looked like a mushroom. It was purple with white spots all over the planet. On the top was an coliseum , with near it… An airship from Bowser!

"Err… Luna… look." The luma that steered the wheel said. Not only Luna, but the two brothers looked at the planet as well.

"What? That big monster is siding with those vile creatures?" Luna was a bit in panic. "That's horrible! If those two shroob princesses chose to work with them it means the end of all!" Mario and Luigi looked at each other, having heard the word shroob somewhere before… It then hit them like a punch in the face.

"Shroobs?" They said synchronous. Luna thought they didn't know what shroob meant, and as such, explained it for them.

"Shroobs are what live on that planet."

"But didn't they move to our kingdom?" Mario stated, Luna getting confused by that. Luigi then explained the whole story that had happened some time ago. This all happened in Mario & Luigi: Partners in time, and as such, the author doesn't seem find it necessary to tell the whole story. So instead, we skip till the explication is done.

"So that's why this area became calmer since years ago… Still, that story contains too much paradoxes to be real." Luna said.

"Blame the video game designers." Was Mario's and Luigi's reply.

"In any case, I wonder why that big monster has such big interest in the planet… Maybe he has a power star there…" After some more talking, they all decided to go to the shroob planet. The ship landed a bit roughly on the purple ground, but it was still whole. Luigi prepared to walk to the coliseum, but was stopped by a hand.

"Luigi, no." Mario said while holding a hand on Luigi's shoulder. Mario spoke with a tone that's usually used by older brothers that were caring for their little ones.

"Wha?" Luigi merely questioned.

"You need to rest for now. You only got rescued this day. So it's not smart to adventure with me yet." Luigi thought about that a few moments, before agreeing. Mario then went solely towards the coliseum, not knowing what was bound for him…

"Gentlekoopas, Gentlegoombas and gentle-all-other-species." A mysterious announcer started to speak in the coliseum. The coliseum looked a bit classical style, like a roman fight arena. In the middle was a large field, with in the middle a big egg. It was purple with green spots. Surrounding the arena were the seats for the visitors, all being of Bowser's army. There was a special seat spot, and currently there was Kamek, Bowser Jr. and all other koopalings. With the exception of Lemmy. They were discussing about various subjects.

"Where's Lemmy?" Wendy asked, looking into a mirror if her make-up was just right.

"He's training with his balls." Roy merely replied. "He finds them more important than seeing the green donkey fights a fight he cannot win."

"Kamek…" Bowser Jr. started. "Why have you come here as well?"

"Not that it's in your interest, but those yoshis brought me so many problems while your dad was young… If it wasn't for those dinosaurs, than the plumber problem would have never existed. I simply seek revenge for that." Kamek explained, while the announcer continued.

"I welcome you to the ultimate battle! The battle between the annoying green donkey and the mysterious creature within the egg!" As soon the sentence was finished, one gate that the author hadn't written about before opened, and a green yoshi was thrown into the arena. He had chains all over his body, but was released by some guards. Those quickly ran away when all chains were gone, not wanting to end up as snack for the yoshi.

This yoshi attempted to act cool and all, but he knew it was game over for him. Whatever was in that egg, he would not be able to defeat it on his own. And even if he did, then the koopas would kill him anyway. He had absolutely no hope in this, but was not wanting to let his enemies know that. He would go down with style and not on some other way.

"And now, ladies and lads, we will open the e-…" The voice suddenly stopped, probably discussing something with somebody else. Everyone, including Yoshi, looked over to Kamek, who just commanded a random koopa to let a certain someone in…

"Sorry for the disrupting, folks, but we have somebody that's wanting to help the evil donkey." Yoshi looked towards Kamek, questioning who would help him in this dark hour. He was surprised to see another gate open up, and from this gate… Came Mario!

Mario found it a bit too easy to get in here. Just go up to the guards, ask if he can enter and here he is. And what's even better, someone else was supposed to be in the arena as well. Mario was surprised when he saw Yoshi, the yoshi that had helped him already many times during most of his adventures.

"Prepare your rotten tomatoes and socks, because here is… Mario!" As if on a clue, hundreds of tomatoes were thrown towards Mario, but before they could even get near him, Yoshi ate them all with his tongue. All of them. And yet, Yoshi was not full. Mario wondered for a moment how big a Yoshi's belly was…

"But without any further ado, let's break the egg!" Everyone in the area looked at one point, where a cannon was prepared to shoot. "Let's count down! Three, two, one... Zero!" On that same moment, a cannon ball was blasted into the egg, making a few cracks. The egg shuffled a bit, more and more cracks appearing on it. The egg finally broke and all the pieces fell on the ground. What was standing before Mario and Yoshi was a gigantic yoshi that looked a bit alien like. It was purple and had a green belly. The eyes were dark red, and they looked with an evil an hungry glare at Mario and Yoshi.

"That's a Yoob!" Mario shouted in panic. A yoshi eating monster, created by the shroobs! It let out a loud and angry roar, before walking towards the plumber and dinosaur…

Boss battle: Yoob, the shroobs' experiment!

Mario: 1/1

Yoshi: 1/1

Yoob: 2/2

_(Music: SMG 2: A-wa-wa-wa!)_

"Wait a moment! Why do we only have one health point?" Yoshi questioned, not noticing the large tongue that came from Yoob as a rocket. Mario pushed the yoshi away and managed to dodge the tongue as well.

"Probably cause all of his attacks cause instant defeat!" Mario nearly screamed. The public loved the show, and so did Kamek and the koopalings.

"Ha! Stupid Mario and his kindness!" Roy laughed. "This is gonna be the end for you!"

Yoshi was running around Yoob, Mario on his back. Yoob jumped up and fell back, causing a shockwave to flow over the arena. Yoshi jumped up and dodged the wave. Yoob slowly walked towards them, seeing the delicious meal before it. It shoot its tongue away again, but Yoshi managed to dodge it, barely though.

"I think this calls for dramatic music…" A koopaling we haven't seen before said. This koopaling had blue hair, in such style that it looked divided in two parts. The hair was huge. The koopaling had further a blue shell and his forehead was green. This koopaling was Ludwig von Koopa.

"Sorry Lu, but there's already music." Bowser Jr. apologized. Ludwig cursed for a moment, before continuing to look at the fight.

Yoob again used its tongue in an attempt to catch Mario and Yoshi, but last one dodged the attack again, taking Mario with him. Yoob's tongue instead hit a randomly placed rock that was for some reason there, and couldn't return its tongue. It attempted it though, but failed at it. Mario thought of a plan.

"Hey Yoshi… Can you grab the rock as well with your tongue?" Mario asked.

"Yoshi! (_Got it!)_" Yoshi replied before grabbing the rock from the other side than Yoob's tongue was. Both Yoshi and Mario started pulling the rock, and the combined power was stronger than that of Yoob. Last one fell backwards, revealing a huge red spot that was meant for a passenger. Mario and Yoshi (that managed to get his tongue off the rock) had other ideas with it, and ground-pounded on it.

Yoob: 1/2

A loud roar was heard, coming from the monstrous mouth of Yoob. It was so loud, even everyone on the faceship could hear it. Luigi went crazy with worry, Toadsworth too, but Luna cheered them up.

"No! That thing has a weakness?" Larry shouted in surprise and anger. The public was disappointed and angry that Mario managed to lay a hit on the monster.

"Maybe good it has… Otherwise it would have formed a problem for us." Kamek said matter-of-factly.

"Not if Mario manages to defeat it!" Bowser Jr. remarked angry, stomping on the ground beneath him.

"I doubt that will happen. That thing can swallow them whole." Kamek replied, before looking again at the fight.

Yoob stood up again, and attempted a counter by shooting its tongue out again at Mario and Yoshi. Both nearly got grabbed by it, but on the last second jumped out of the way. Yoob let again out a monstrous roar, and jumped up again to cause a shockwave again. They managed to dodge it by jumping, and were looking out for another rock to use. They found one, and stood before it, waiting for Yoob to use its tongue again. It did, and again could not return its tongue now it was stuck to the heavy rock. Yoshi again used his tongue on the rock as well, and managed to trip Yoob again. Both Yoshi and Mario ground pounded on it.

Yoob: 0/2

_(End the Music)_

Yoob screamed in pain, while the red spot cracked open. It was apparently to be made of glass of some sorts, but who cared? Yoob started to glow, before disappearing before the eyes of all people.

"… Err… Well folks, it seems like the wicked Mario and evil Yoshi team managed to defeat that monster…" The announcer started. "However, remain calm and wait for further instructions from the upper generals. They know what to..." The voice was interrupted by another one.

"Remain calm? Remain calm! That dinosaur can eat people whole! Run folks! Run for your lives!" As if on cue, the whole audience screamed their heads off while running away to the airship that was nearby. After just a few seconds, only Mario, Yoshi, Kamek and the koopalings remained in the arena.

"Mario!" Bowser Jr. started. "I can't believe you beat that thing! I wanted to use it for my zoo!"

"Your zoo?" Mario asked confused.

"Yes, my zoo! Doesn't matter though you have defeated it! I've prepared a whole galaxy full of pain for you! You will not survive there!"

"And what if I do?"

"You won't! But try anyway! Kamek, prepare for take off!" Bowser Jr. commanded, much to the dislike of some of the koopalings, but even they couldn't disagree that it was the smartest thing to do for now. Around the place where Kamek and the koopalings were, formed a large glass dome, letting it look like an UFO, which it was actually. The UFO then flew into the sky, away from the coliseum. Only Mario and Yoshi remained there, who agreed to return to the Faceship. But not before Mario took the power star which was the last remaining thing of Yoob. When they arrived, the ship quickly left the planet, flying after the koopalings' UFO.

* * *

"Eurgh…" Rich's voice grumbled. "I feel like I've been shocked…" Last sentence caught the attention from the lumas that were supposed to watch him. Supposed, because they were doing something else, namely playing with cards… They dropped them and quickly decided to check if Rich had amnesia by asking a few questions.

"Do you remember the name of who rescued you?"

"Do you remember the name of the captain of this ship?"

"Err… I don't. But that's because…" Rich couldn't finish his sentence before the lumas started screaming in panic. The boy had amnesia! Luna wouldn't be pleased by that news! All of the lumas started flying around in the room, Rich looking dazed at them.

"Because I'm just no good with names…" Rich muttered softly. The sounds below the deck caused Luna to check it, after being introduced to Yoshi. Last one quickly started napping on the ship, while Mario, Luigi, Toadsworth looked out for the UFO of the koopalings. E. Gadd was still busy with his teleport machine, which somehow still could teleport E. Gadd… But just not Rich.

"What in the *Censored* is going on here?" Luna asked while opening the door. Immediately, all lumas flew up to her, while Rich only gave her a confused stare. The lumas started sobbing.

"He… got… amnesia…" One of them managed to speak. Rich became even more confused, before telling Luna he still could remember everything of his live and as such, didn't have amnesia.

"If you still remember everything, can you tell who managed to knock you out?" Luna asked, but Rich shook his head, a bit freaked out he apparently got unconscious again… That was the second time in his whole life, and that in just a few days!

"I got knocked out? … I only remember defeating that thief as the last thing, and him escaping, nothing afterwards…" Luna ordered the lumas to watch Rich for now, while hovering back to the deck to tell Mario about this... situation.

**

* * *

And so ended this chapter. Shorter than usual and maybe a bit rushed. But then again, I just want to finish this story already…**

**Time for some advertising though. I've posted another story, namely 'A not sweet sixteenth'… Not too much original things happening there yet, but you might want to check it out… It has some spoilers for this story though, so be warned.**

**Next chapter we finally end world one. It's a major Rich chapter again, and… no, I'm not going to reveal that one yet. The only thing I'm going to say is that the next boss is based on my favorite animal… But review please! And merry Christmas again!**


	10. World 1: Junior's beastly galaxy zoo

**Sorry that it took so long before I finished the chapter. Hopefully, it makes up for the time I used. (Probably not.) This chapter will have a few things changed. The health system for example. Mario's health of 3/3 became 100/100. Bosses will have varying rates though… But this system allows me to go for real combat instead of 'find the weak spot'. (though weak spots will be used for finishers.)**

**Let's just start.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else of his series, Nintendo does. Any music I advise to listen to in this chapter is also not owned by me, but by their respective owners. I only own Rich and the plot.**

* * *

"… Err, hi?" Rich mutters after half an hour, not recognizing his location before that time In his own room. Poorly enough not his real one, but the one he got on this spaceship/faceship/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-ship. But more importantly than his own room, was the fact that besides him were also a few lumas, hovering around Rich as if he could explode any moment. Which Rich actually would do, if he was alone that is. And a few lumas in his room certainly did not live up to that requirement.

How could his brain have switched off during the theft? A question that Rich wanted an answer to. It was unlike him. Just like it was unlike him to fight, to have a tantrum, heck, to just be here at all. It all felt so unreal for him. But then again, since when were flying mini-cartoons real? And talking mushrooms? Talking turtles was something Rich was used to, but mushrooms? What kind of weird evolution did happen in this… world? _(Small note from author: There are both koopas and toads in Rich's world. Explication for this matter may come in future chapters. Just go along for it now.)_

Rich prepared to go out of his bed, because he wanted his rucksack, or more importantly, his DS, back. Just when one foot of him reached outside the grey blanket he was under, the lumas put it over him again, thinking he did it accidently. Till his whole left leg showed up. The lumas started to protest, saying that he should rest for now. They did this however in their native language, and as such, Rich did not understand what they are saying.

"I do not understand what you are saying…" Rich looked confused, while trying to get some hints from body language. However, with just two eyes and a star form, there was not much body that could speak. Because he didn't get any form of protest that he could understand, Rich continued with standing up. The lumas now realized their mistake, and now said in English that he should rest. Only to mention that Rich was already out of the room…

* * *

"It might be me, but I think I see something coming up." Luigi pointed at what seemed to be a mass of very large buildings, which came closer and closer to the ship. The koopalings' and Kamek's UFO seemed to fly over there, not knowing they were followed by the faceship. Or so Luna hoped.

"I see it too." Luna stated. "The problem though is that that galaxy never existed before."

Mario looked at the now napping Yoshi and baby luma on the red grass (they looked quite cute like that according to Luna), before turning around on his heels to see the new galaxy. "Bowser's army probably built it."

"Can be, but this fast? The big monster attacked the observatory only three days ago, there's no way possible they can built it that fast." Luna said.

"Don't underestimate that army when it comes to building." Mario spoke. "They can make seven small castles in a few days. However, when it comes to fighting, there's no problem with underestimating them." Luna smiled for a second at the joke, but her eyes looked with worry as she saw the UFO arriving on the galaxy.

"And boos can build a mansion in a night, while toads a large castle in a few days… You gotta wonder who's the fastest builder on the Mushroom Kingdom." Luigi added, but because the conversation had already moved on, it missed its effect.

"Anyway, Mario and Luigi, you should explore the next galaxy while we lumas try to figure out what happened to Rich." As if on a clue, Rich opened the door to beneath the decks just as Luna said his name. While he didn't want attention, he immediately got lots of it.

"Aren't you supposed to be resting?"

"What happened to you?"

"Will you join Mario on his quest?" With this question, everyone immediately looked at Toadsworth, wondering if he ever would shut up about that. Then the attention returned to Rich.

"To repeat my question…" Luna started. "Aren't you supposed to rest right now?"

"Err… Maybe… But I feel fine…" Rich said a bit shyly. "I'm only getting my rucksack anyway."

"Luna…" the luma that was currently steering the wheel started. Only Luigi heard it though, who had not the courage to talk. The others remained busy talking with Rich.

"Do you really not remember a thing about what happened?" Mario asked.

"Besides what I've told already, no." Rich answered, nearly saying that he wanted to just pick up his DS and return already. He found it rude though to say it.

"Luna…" Fear was now in the voice of the luma. Luigi was the only one that heard him again, and turned around to see what luma wanted to tell. Luigi's face turned into an expression of 'what the…'

"Not now." Luna replied at the luma, before continuing with her talk with Rich. "Try hard. Maybe there's a hint in your memories…"

"Luna!"

"What? It can't be that important!" Luna shouted furious.

"Look to the galaxy!" As Luna did that (and the others as well), they saw ten, no, fifty cannons preparing to shoot at the faceship. Apparently, Kamek and the koopalings had arrived in the galaxy and ordered to bring down the faceship.

"Enemies preparing to kill you any moment… Nope, absolutely not important." Rich said, before screaming loud and in horror as the cannons started shooting. Most of them missed, though three managed to hit the ship. Nobody got wounded, but the lumas lost control over the ship. The gravity of Bowser Jr.'s galaxy attracted the ship, and as a result, it flew straight into it…

* * *

"Everyone's alright?" Mario asked. She immediately got responses from the area.

"Yep."

"Yoshi."

"Fine enough."

"Not wounded too badly."

"Mario!" Upon hearing the terrified voice of his younger brother, Mario looked around. The ship had survived the crash, but was damaged a lot though. Trash piles surrounded it, as well some small flames. Luna, E. Gadd, Yoshi and even Toadsworth laid on the ground, wounded, but tried to stand up again. Mario did so as well, seeing that he had several cuts and bruises, but nothing too majorly. The lack of Luigi in the area alarmed Mario, before seeing one trash pile shaking. He walked to it and took away the trash, revealing the man in green.

"Thanks bro." Luigi said as he stood up. He used his arm to wipe off some black ash. "Where are we?"

"I guess in the galaxy of the evil creatures." Luna said, joining the conversation. "Did you by the way see that sign?" Luna pointed towards a sign, where Mario read: "Welcome to the Bowser zoo! We hope that you will have a great time here!"

"That actually sounds interesting." Luigi said, before seeing a sign beneath the main one. This one read: "In case you're not on the great king's side, leave or else this zoo will get some new species! Namely you!"

"That sounds evil…" Luigi now mentioned.

"Maybe you should investigate…" E. Gadd also joined. "This zoo might have gotten new 'species' since it was build."

"I guess. But how's everyone of the ship doing?" Mario asked, a bit worrying.

"Don't worry. All lumas have survived and are still here." Luna stated.

"And what about all humans?" Luigi asked, making Luna confused. It was then she mentioned that someone was missing…

"Err… One is missing. Again." Luna was a bit annoyed by the disappearance. "I guess you and your brother, that dinosaur and the baby luma should look around. We will search for him around here. I mean, he's not standing in front of the boss door, is he?"

* * *

Of course he is, Luna. Rich slowly awakened, looking around in fear and surprise at his surrounding area. Then the memories of the crash started to flow in, how he somehow got launched when the ship hit the ground, the landing… His memory of this event was quite clearly, unlike the previous one. Rich searched for a way to get back, but the only way he could go was through this very big red door, the appearance just spelling: 'Enter and it's game over.'

Rich could do two things. Enter, or just remain stuck here till he got rescued. The latter could possibly result with him being here for all eternity, while the former would probably guide him back to the crew.

"Enter a big red door… What could possibly go wr-…" Rich stopped, and corrected himself. "What could possibly go better?" He said with a big fake smile, before sighing. "That's probably not going to work… Oh well…" Rich said, picking up his rucksack (which somehow survived the crash and somehow blasted together with Rich), and pushed the giant door open.

* * *

"Mario!" Mario turned around, seeing a red-spotted toad in a cage. He, along with Luigi, Yoshi and the baby luma had entered the zoo, which looked like a circus of some sorts. An evil, Bowser-themed circus, that is. Mario walked to the cage, seeing an information bullet by the cage.

"Toad." It started. "Homo Fungus. Despite its major strength, this species tends to be cowardly." More information was on it, but Mario returned his attention to the cage.

"Would you mind helping me out of this? I've been stuck for two days in this small cage!" The toad said, before seeing that Mario already used a key that just happened to be around, to open the small area.

"Thank you very much! Can you rescue the other nineteen prisoners?" The toad asked. Mario simply nodded, before telling the others to find the prisoners while Mario guided the toad back to the crash site, as it was the safest spot for now…

* * *

"What kind of place is this?" Rich, questioned. His surroundings contained of oversized trees, just as big as whole flats. Red planets seemed to stick to these trees, as if they were red apples. Rich was standing on such 'apple'. Between two threes, at the other side of Rich, was a very large gate that seemed to contain something.

"Hahaha!" The evil laughter came from above Rich, and as he looked to it, he saw the UFO of the koopalings, Kamek absent for some reason. Bowser Jr didn't even look at Rich while he started telling.

"Mario! You got here already? I thought the cannons would get rid of you! Oh well, I've got a surprise for you!" All koopalings started laughing, except for Lemmy. He was the only one that mentioned something odd about this Mario…

"Err, bros and sis? I thought Mario wore red clothes… Did he finally got some other clothes?" All koopalings stopped with laughing, turning around to see Rich shaking in his shoes.

"What? Who are you?" Bowser Jr. asked, only to see Rich still shaking and not reacting at all. "This is kind of awkward…"

"This is no problem, junior." Ludwig started. "Just open the gates so Planetavor can have a snack before facing Mario." Bowser junior thought for a while, before he started laughing again.

"Good plan! Hey, you weakling! Get ready for the feeding show of Planetavor! Only you will be the food!" With one last evil laughter, the koopalings retreated. The gates slowly opened, and a loud roar blared through the whole galaxy. The apple planets shook as what could only be a very large creature moving. A large dark silhouette appeared between the opened gates, and Rich could only manage to say:

"Worst." The creature came closer.

"Prize." Another step.

"Ever." And the monster finally entered the area, roaring very loud.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Luigi asked, shaking in his shoes even worse than what Rich did.

"Yoshi…" Yoshi replied, fearing as well what happened.

"That's no good…" Luigi said, before continuing to search for the last prisoners.

* * *

Another thunderous roar, as Rich saw what the creature was. A plain giraffe. An oversized giraffe. The giraffe opened its mouth, its tongue shooting at a planet near Rich, and eating the planet in one gulp. It let out another roar when it saw Rich.

**Major boss!**

**Planetavor:** Swallower of planets!

**Rich: 130/130 **

**Planetavor: 250/250**

_(Music: Epic Mickey: Boss captain Hook.)_

Rich was still too afraid to fight, so Planetavor started it by shooting out its tongue at Rich's planet. Rich could only watch as the tongue grabbed the planet and dragged it in just a few seconds into the mouth of the beast. Rich was taken in as well, and got chomped on by Planetavor's huge teeth. He was spit out of the mouth though, landing hard on another planet. The whole attack caused a total of 60 damage.

**Rich: 70/130**

"Ow…" Rich mumbled, trying to stand up again. It was quite hard to do that, but he managed, just in time to see Planetavor using its tongue again to eat the planet. The tongue grabbed the planet and quickly dragged it back to the mouth, but Rich, pure driven by instinct, managed to jump over to another planet. He was not used though with the gravity change from one planet to another, which resulted with him landing face first on the planet.

Planetavor didn't wait for Rich to recover from the landing, but instead of using its tongue, it lifted its forelegs, and crashed them into the planet with Rich on it. Planetavor somehow missed Rich, but the planet shattered in thousand pieces. Those and Rich all got grabbed by the gravity of yet another planet to the right. Rich smacked hard when he landed and got some minor damage.

**Rich: 60/130**

Seeing as how its foe was close to defeat, Planetavor let out another thunderous roar. While it did so, Rich slowly managed to stand up again. It was game over. There was no way he could defeat this giant creature. As Rich lost the little hope he had over after this whole adventure, Planetavor opened its mouth again.

"I guess… this is it." Rich muttered while he saw the large tongue of Planetavor shooting out towards him.

"I've worked hard for my future…" The tongue came closer and closer.

"For nothing." The tongue hit the planet, and wrapped itself around it. Time slowed down for Rich, while his life started to flash before his eyes like a movie. The tongue slowly (in reality, fast) dragged the planet closer to the mouth. When Rich's life flash neared the present, he saw himself defeating Popple. Just a few hours ago. And why? For his DS. The sole thing that managed to prevent Rich becoming crazy. After all what he has done, he would end it like this? Seriously? He always had tried to ensure that his future would be good, he even went to that blasted star festival for that, and now he would end up as steak?

A roar. Not of angriness like the previous ones, but out of pain. Rich realized what he had done. In a fit of pure rage, he had punched the tongue of the monster. This resulted with the tongue releasing the planet. Planetavor returned his tongue, giving Rich an angry glare while the beast destroyed the planet with its head. Rich didn't even realize till after that he jumped over to another planet, now landing less painfully. Planetavor had gotten 20 damage from Rich's attack, which was not major damage, but still damage nonetheless.

**Planetavor: 230/250**

"Not on my watch will I die today!" Rich shouted out, showing off his digital watch he still was wearing. Planetavor only let out another roar, and attempted to use its tongue again, forgetting what happened just mere seconds ago. Not that Rich did the same thing. No, instead he focused energy in his right arm, and just before the tongue struck, punched the tongue, reflecting it back to the head. The end of the tongue struck hard, causing a nice 30 damage for the monster.

**Planetavor: 200/250**

Now the monster got serious. Realizing that another tongue attack could end up painfully, it decided on raising its left foreleg, and then smashed through all planets on Rich's right, including the planet he was standing on. He dodged for the planet on his left…

But that one was swallowed just a few moments ago. Because of the lack of a planet, Rich got attracted the non-love way towards Planetavor, which had its own strong gravity apparently.

"Beep." Was all Rich managed to say before landing on the skin of Planetavor, oddly enough being quite sturdy… Or maybe the pieces, the last remnants of the destroyed planets, were. Probably the latter. In any case, Rich received 20 damage.

**Rich: 40/130**

Rich stood up, still on the piles of rocks, and looked around. Most planets were destroyed or swallowed, but those trees that surrounded the battlefield were apparently not just for the show; Planets seemed to grow from them?

"… I will question the logic of that later." Rich mumbled, suddenly realizing that the ground beneath him was gone. Then back. Planetavor attempted to shake Rich off, but because of the gravity of the monster attracted Rich back to it, that didn't really work. Maybe Rich could use that for his advantage. He saw how the tail of Planetavor (you know giraffes have tails, right?) got attracted by the gravity of a small, not destroyed, planet, forming some kind of bridge. Rich first decided to use that as a way to get off the body, but then realized he might go for the head…

Planetavor shook heavier as Rich climbed up the neck. He had to cling the body with every step he set, otherwise Planetavor would succeed throwing Rich off. The neck had less gravity, or so it appeared. Do not question it.

In any case, Rich managed to reach the head. For a moment, he wondered what he was planning again, before seeing a symbol that looked like an explosion above the eyes of the monster. However, in Super Mario Galaxy (2), this symbol had a whole different meaning…

Rich charged up his arm, jumped up, and came crashing down on the symbol, hand first. Planetavor shrieked out, receiving major damage. The monster moved its head wildly, finally managing to get rid of Rich. He fell on a now full-grown planet, the first one he had been standing on in the beginning of the fight. He looked over to still wildly shaking Planetavor, which had received 150 damage.

**Planetavor: 50/250**

Planetavor finally got a hold on itself, and was as angry as Bowser would be after a bad report from his minions. Planetavor attempted to rush into Rich, but he quickly made an escape for it to the planet on his left.

"Sorry, but your target is on another planet!" Rich taunted, before getting surprised by the tongue of Planetavor, used as a whip. Rich didn't manage to dodge, and got smashed off his planet. Brutally falling on yet another one, Rich received a total of 30 damage.

**Rich: 10/130**

Rich was now standing his last legs. Breathing very heavily and pain all over his body, Rich nearly lost hope again. That is, if he was in control. He wasn't, well sorta. Adrenaline started to pump into Rich's body, and Rich's only thoughts were how to survive. And seeing as how the weak spot was on the head of the monster, and the only no damage way to get there was the tail, Rich started to run, and mostly jump, for it. Planetavor attempted its tongue again as a whip, but the only result was that Rich reflected it back. Planetavor screamed in pain, having got 20 damage.

**Planetavor: 30/250**

Now Planetavor wanted to get its revenge, but was a little late for that. Rich had already reached the tail, and was now nearing the back. All that Planetavor could do was shake, but it didn't really help. A few moments later, Rich let out a loud battle cry as he used his arm, and landed on the head, dealing the resting damage that was needed.

**Planetavor: 0/250**

_(Stop the music!)_

Rich jumped off Planetavor, landing on a random planet. He saw how the neck of the giraffe shrunk back into the body, before the monster started to shine brightly. Rich covered his eyes, and when he opened them again, Planetavor was gone, only a grand star and some yellow energy in the forms of bolls flying around. For some reason, those bolls went to Rich, and he absorbed them. He didn't know what that meant, but watched how the koopalings came back.

"What? You actually destroyed my beloved Planetavor?" Iggy screamed out, tears forming in his eyes.

"I think we have worse matters at the moment…" Larry noticed.

"Junior, this would really call for a strategic retreat." Ludwig advised.

"I think so too. Dad needs to know this…" And with that, Bowser Jr gave the command to Iggy to make haste towards Bowser, leaving Rich and the grand star alone.

Rich was still heavily breathing, while the grand star hovered towards him. It accidently touched Rich, and the grand star started to fly to completely random places, as if dancing.

You got a grand sta-… BONK!

That dancing didn't went well, and the grand star landed painfully on Rich's head, knocking the poor boy out.

**Rich: 0/130**

Kind of anticlimactic… In any case, the red door Rich entered before the fight, went open again, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and the baby luma finally finding this area after having rescued all prisoners.

* * *

"What!" Bowser's roar shook his whole palace, which was near completion. "You tell me that a random boy defeated Iggy's Planetavor? That's impossible!"

"What's even more impossible, is how fast we managed to get here…" Larry muttered, and all other agreed.

"Great! Another OC! How many are there already?" Bowser stomped in rage on the ground. "This is not helping me to finally defeat Mario for a second time!"

"Dad did it once?" Roy questioned, not believing it at all.

"Paper Mario 64, at the start of the game." Ludwig answered. Roy looked in disbelief at Ludwig, before shrugging it off.

"And what about those prisoners we captured at the star festival! I all trusted them to Bowser Jr. for his Zoo tycoon game!"

"Probably rescued by Mario." Morton answered. This was only worse for the king's temper.

"That's it! Tell my ship to prepare to leave! I will settle this myself! This fanfiction selection will be finally called Bowser, and not Mario! Nobody shall make a idiot out of me again!" Bowser stood up from his throne, and started to walk out of the throne hall, only to be stopped by a question of Ludwig.

"Do you mind me questioning the fact that you know a lot about what's beyond the fourth wall?"

"I do mind, but for your information…" Bowser started, seeing two of his minions laughing about something, standing near a computer.

"I don't believe how good these authors are! And I can't help to stop laughing at Bowser's idiotic reactions!"

"He is indeed a big idiot!" The two minions never saw the flame coming, burning to a crisp in a mere second.

"With minions like I have…" Bowser started, "you're doomed to figure out someday." And with that, Bowser and his children walked off.

_

* * *

(Music: Mission Impossible theme)_

"How long have we searched for Bowser's treasure by now?" Waluigi asked at Wario, both still in the donkey costume.

"A few days, I guess…" Wario answered.

"Great! We're not getting any farther!" Waluigi complained. The fact that they haven't eaten anything during that time, didn't seem to stuck to either of them.

"Hush! I see two koopas walking…" Waluigi lifted his eyebrow.

"What has that to do with anything? All previous minions didn't seem to recognize us, for some odd reason…"

"Change of plan. Now keep silent." Waluigi still didn't understand, but did as commanded. They stood still, in a place where they could perfectly ambush the two koopas. And that was exactly what the new plan was. In a few seconds, both jumped out of the donkey costume, and attacked the two poor koopas. They didn't stand any chance, and were quickly wrapped up with a rope like a present. Without their shells on.

"Now wear their shells." Wario shortly commanded, and did so himself. When he looked at Waluigi, he saw something strange…

"Err… Waluigi? Why are you standing in a perfect ninety degree rotation?"

"What do you think!" Waluigi replied, pointing at the donkey costume. "After having walked so long that way, I can't bend back again!"

"Oh, let me fix that." Wario answered, walking towards him. Before Waluigi even realized what Wario was doing, he screamed out in pain. Wario was trying with pure force to get Waluigi standing straight again. It took some minutes, but Wario succeeded.

"Now wear that shell, and hurry, I already wear mine." Wario commanded, only to get a snarky response back.

"I see that. Although, I see that you wore one!" Wario didn't understand it till he looked down. There he saw that the shell had broken up in thousand and one piece.

"Huh? I thought that that koopa wore medium, not small." Waluigi rolled his eyes, before attacking a by-passing sledge bro. A sledge bro is a fat hammer bro. Nothing more needs to be said.

After some refusing from Wario's side, the two thieves wore the two shells. "And what now?" Waluigi asked.

"We can continue our search." Wario simply responded.

"What? But Bowser's army will discover us in no time with just shells!" Just as Waluigi said his complaint, two koopas passed and greeted the thieves like they were just normal koopas.

"See that it works?" Wario asked, before walking away.

"I'm too smart for this universe…" Waluigi muttered, before following Wario.

_(End the music)_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the kingdom where the fair flower princess rules…

"Haha! After years of preparation, I finally come back!" This sentence was said by a small purple alien, who was evilly laughing. "Now princess Daisy and Sarassaland will be mine again! No red plumber that will stop me!"

The alien was driving an odd UFO that had several blasters, towards a huge castle. The people near the castle looked at the UFO, started to panic and scream as they ran back into nearby houses. The alien only laughed harder, as he parked his UFO straight for the gate of the castle. He walked towards it, with each step looking eviler and eviler, and when he reached the entrance… He politely knocked on it. A normal toad walked towards the alien.

"What brings you here?"

"I'm going to kidnap the princess! Now open the gate, or else I will brainwash you to do it!" The alien threatened, only to be surprised by the toad shaking his head.

"I'm sorry sir, but princess Daisy is kidnapped by another evil being." The alien's eyes grew big.

"Noooooooooo!" Last word could be loudly heard over the whole world. Scientists are still researching where the word came from.

* * *

**And I've finally completed the chapter! Not much to say, besides that world 1 is done! Just five more to go… Next chapter we will skip two galaxies. Simply because I have realized I cannot write them well (try to describe Mario on the starball and rock Mario. Unless you're very good, it's nearly impossible). Meaning there only two galaxies over for world 2. And we will start with the galaxy… where Rich reveals a bit more about his past.**

**Just one thing to say before I leave. Rich is getting too much spotlight at the moment, I've realized. I will lessen that with world 2. The only major Rich moment is above mentioned thing. In world 3…Gyah hah hah, Rich will take a bigger role again… (Evil laugh is not good… I warn you.)**

**See you next time…**


	11. World 2: The randomness of everything

**And we have arrived in world 2, which will already end next chapter. That's kind of fast, especially because this chapter is a short one. Oh well… Let's just start with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do… You know what? Let's turn this one around. Nintendo does not own Rich or the plot, I do. Nintendo only owns Mario and everything else of his series.**

* * *

The combination of toads and lumas was really great. They managed to rebuild the spaceship in a few hours, including the technical parts. The last one thanks to the toad brigade. Yes, the toad brigade was kept in Junior's devilish zoo. Luigi had managed to find them, but he needed Mario to knock out the guards. Currently Luigi was bragging how he had rescued the brigade, but let out Mario's help in his tales.

It was surprising to find Rich with the grand star, especially when Rich had awoken and told about Planetavor. From what Luna managed to figured out, the energy bolls Rich had absorbed were extracted out of several star bits and put into the monster. The fact that they were now inside Rich might mean he got stronger, though Rich wasn't wanting to test it out and instead finally took a rest (which means playing with his DS till his eyes become squares). Toadsworth attempted again to convince Rich into helping Mario, but of course, he refused. Though he wasn't exactly saying anymore that it would become his death…

One day and two galaxies had passed since the zoo. Nothing really special happened on those two galaxies, except for a rock mushroom transformation for Luigi. Now the team of the ship was hovering in the endless space, realizing that they might stumble upon another Bowser galaxy.

"Well bro, are you ready for it?" Luigi asked, friendly but a bit scared, contrasting a bit with his tales of the heroic Luigi that fred the poor toad brigade. Mario didn't care though, and simply answered the question.

"When am I not?"

"The times that you got kidnapped?" Luigi answered honestly, upon Mario face slapped himself.

"Okay, you got a point, but I'm not kidnapped now, am I?"

"Lucky enough not. And hopefully it never happens again. I don't wanna go through a haunted mansion for a second time…" Luigi answered, scared of the thought. Mario sighed. His brother was really a coward. Nearly afraid of his own shadow, but lucky enough, not that far. Though when they were children…

Mario was snapped out of his daydreams when Luna shouted something."What do you mean, the ship refuses to work!"

"We do not understand this ourselves." The voice of the blue toad from the toad brigade responded. "We've had several troubles with the starshroom, but this problem is one we haven't dealt with before."

"What's the problem?" Mario asked, him and Luigi having walked to where this conversation was being hold. At this location were Luna and the whole toad brigade. Well, except the yellow toad. He was sleeping somewhere on this ship… Probably somewhere with Yoshi.

"The ship doesn't work anymore! We're stuck in space!" Luna cried out loud. The voice flew into the ear of a young boy that had just left his comfy bed. Rich looked over to Luna from a distance, a camera in his hands. E. Gadd examined Rich a few minutes ago, and concluded Rich recovered enough. When E. Gadd walked out of Rich's room, Rich realized he still had his camera. And of what could one make more beautiful pictures of than space?

"That's great. Now how do we get to Bowser?" Mario asked.

"No idea." Luna answered. "All we can do for the moment, is to let bluety here repair the ship. If it can be repaired, that is…" The blue toad looked irritated due his nickname for a few seconds, before shrugging it off and walking off to the ships main control. It wasn't going to become a trend, was it?

"Hey Mario, what if we explore the surrounding planets?" The red toad asked bravely, but due the suddenness of the question, everyone looked at the toad. "Haven't you seen them yet?" The red toad asked when he mentioned the stares, pointing upwards. Indeed, now upon a look on the sky, the ship was surrounded by lots of small planets. No star close, just planets.

"We might have ended up in random galaxy…" Luna muttered.

"Random galaxy? What kind of name is that?" Luigi asked.

"A random name for a random place with random planets in it. We thought it randomly fitted." Luna answered, before the red toad started talking again.

"But can we explore? There might be lots of treasures around here, maybe even a power star."

"It sounds like a good idea to me, Mario." Luigi said, despite never being asked about his opinion. Maybe he would get the power star, so that he could creep just a little bit out of his brother's shadow. Or maybe he would find some nice presents to give to someone, like Daisy… Not that he was in love or anything, absolutely not. Just like the narrator being forced to be in denial about Luigi's real thoughts, or else getting a shock due Luigi's thunderhand, absolutely not happening at the moment.

"_At least I can do something during the reparation…"_ Mario thought. "Oh well, why not?"

"Err… Is that a good idea?" The green toad started. "I mean, we are probably near the evil, murderous, scary, strong, dangerous koopa king. We might meet him, or else his army which's nearly as evil as he is…" When the green toad stopped, both Luigi and the red toad seemed to be horrified of something.

"Mario? Can you go on ahead? We need to prepare before leaving…" The red toad said, while thinking: _"While you're preparing the road for us…"_

"Err… Yeah, bro. I need to do that as well. Preparing." Luigi said. Before Mario could even answer to either Luigi or the red toad, both had already left, Luigi alone and the red toad with the toad brigade. Mario just looked at them walking away.

"Do they do that always?" Luna asked.

"Don't know for the toad captain, but Luigi sometimes uses other excuses…" Mario answered, before shrugging the cowardliness of his team mates off and jumping over to the nearest planet. He could now take a good look on the surrounding area. A lot of planets, just big enough to not be called comets, was in this area. If there was a power star here, it would take some time before finding it…

* * *

Rich closed the door of his bedroom. He could just not believe they were stuck in some random place in space. Even being murdered seemed to be nicer, instead of dying of hunger… How did he end up in this random mess? He could remember the day very well when he had arrived in New Brooklyn…

"_Is the hotel close?" Rich asked at his guiders, who were guiding him (duh) to the place his hotel was. They were in a grey car, that didn't stand out from all other cars. Not that it could anyway, with the amounts the rather small street was filled with. "I mean, I haven't heard which one it is…" One of his guiders turned around, a black woman with a cream medium long dress, with over it a brown vest, to look at him._

"_We are not close." She stated, not unfriendly but also friendly. The driver, a white male wearing a brown vest with a white t-shirt beneath it and some blue jeans, did not add anything. Rich wondered if that was because he asked a dumb question, which it was probably._

"_Not? Is New York that big?" Rich asked, making several pictures of the surrounding houses with his camera. This would be the first and last time that he's here, and he would not go home without having photographed a small part of New York._

"_No, it's not that big." Small statement, again a stupid question Rich theorized._

"_But why are we not close to it then?" Rich asked, wondering if that question was a stupid one again._

"_The hotel is not in New York." Rich got a big angry at himself for two things; First, he should have checked if the hotel was actually in New York before going (the advertisement of the World Culture Lottery wanted to keep the hotel a secret, but he should have been able to at least find out the city), second, because he asked a dumb question again. He remained silent for a quarter of a hour, before starting again with asking._

"_How come by the way that I didn't find any information about the star festival on internet? Even Wikipedia started about one in Japan, but none in America…"_

"_They don't hold the festival often." Again a dumb question? Rich was now seriously getting angry with himself._

"_But even then, shouldn't someone write about it? Even the Elfstedentocht was not hold for thirteen years, and yet everyone in my country seems to remember it…" Rich asked. He hoped that this one…_

"_People celebrate it once in a century." It was that Rich was not the person to swear, otherwise some curse words would have been said due asking yet again a dumb question. Not wanting to embarrass himself more, he remained silent._

_After what seemed hours , the car suddenly went into a small street, one that seemed so unnoticeable, that out of a million people, just one person would see it. Even Rich didn't mention it at first, until he was about to make a picture… of an abandoned apartment. Rich, surprised at seeing that, wondered if he should ask if they're going the right way, but decided that they probably were. They were guiding him after all, not?_

_About a few minutes later, the car suddenly stopped. Rich looked questioning at his two guides, wondering why they stopped here. Was it a break after driving all those hours? He had heard something that it was smart to take a break after driving some hours… The guides stepped out of the car, while Rich just looked at them from the inside. When they motioned for him to also leave the car, he did so, but not before asking the reason for it._

"_We need to be here." Was the short, emotionless answer. With that, they walked inside of an old building, one that seems to come from the time of the Second World War. With the broken windows and, the weeds growing over the wall and the rusty door, it looked abandoned. When the two guides mentioned that the one they were supposed to guide was still outside, they came back and motioned for Rich to enter. Rich hesitated for a moment, before doing it._

_The inside looked, just like the outside, abandoned. As if one decided to move without taking all of his items with him. Rich and the guides walked through this mansion, before the two guides suddenly went through a door with stairs downwards going to the basement. Why they were going there was something Rich did not know, but something Rich also didn't, was why there was that huge green pipe over there._

"_Can someone explain to me why we're here?" Rich questioned a bit nervous. After all, the way to a hotel isn't usually found through the basement of an abandoned house._

_No voice answered the question. Instead, they moved towards the rather oversized pipe, looking once into it, then motioning Rich to come to it as well. When he did, he looked in the pipe as well. A never ending darkness was in it. He couldn't even see the bottom, hinting that the pipe might be deep._

"_Okay… Now that we've looked into this… pipe, can we continue to the hotel?" Rich asked, this time being answered again._

"_That's what we're doing…" The answer surprised Rich, despite not being complete. Rich stepped backwards, away from the pipe._

"_And to continue…" More steps backward._

"_You have to enter this pipe." Rich gasped in shock, before protesting heavily._

"_In that pipe? What do you want, kill me? Did you see how deep it is? I didn't, because it's too deep to see! And last time I checked, pipes are not the ways of transportation to hotels, nor are hotels in the inside of it! I'm not going in there!" Despite the rise of Rich's voice during the protest, neither of the guides seemed to be shocked by the reaction. They just… stood there._

"_That's no ordinary pipe." The female guide started._

"_No, it's an oversized pipe!" Rich countered, but the guide ignored him._

"_This pipe is called a warp pipe."_

"_A warp pipe?" Rich repeated, only to have his sentence become ignored again._

"_Warp pipes transport everything from one place to another. There are many in the Mushroom Kingdom…"_

"_Last time I checked geography and history, there wasn't a 'Mushroom Kingdom' in every time and every place. So unless you're joking or something…" Again Rich's words reached not-listening ears._

"_And just over the whole world overall…"_

"_And yet, this is my first time seeing one."_

"_And this is no ordinary warp pipe." Rich looked at the guide with a stare of 'You're kidding me'._

"_This warp pipe transports people across worlds… From here, to the Kingdom of mushrooms…" And so the epic monologue ended. Rich realized that as well, and spoke._

"_Across worlds? You're joking. There're no other worlds! If one enters that thing, he never gets out!" For the first time in the whole time Rich spent with the people, the guides smirked, proving to be not completely emotionless. Was it because Rich now finally had said something smart, or because it was the dumbest thing he had said yet?_

"_Allow me to demonstrate… Behold!" The male guide jumped just like that in the green pipe. Rich looked shocked. Human population had just decreased to one less. He pondered whether he was now involved in the crime, if he should go out and scream… In any case, panic started showing on the teenager's face._

_Until the guide came back. Jumping out of the pipe, back on the solid ground, holding grass in his hands. The purpose of the grass was being proof, but Rich did not believe it, thinking that the guide got it beforehand. Rich only could look in confusion, looking over the side of the warp pipe into it. Was there some kind of huge spring down there? Or were the words of the guides true?_

"_Okay, let's say you went over to another world… Shouldn't we be getting scientists or explorers or someone with a bit more knowledge investigate it? I mean, sending a teenager to certain doom just because he won a prize doesn't sound right in my ears… Especially because I'm that teenager!" Rich's voice slightly raised when he said the last sentence. Disbelief and confusion was clearly present on the face._

"_Are you sure you want that?" An emotionless voice again, but the smirk remained on the guides' faces. "If somebody finds it and discovers the other world, will it not become filled with all kinds of people? Evil, dark, murderous people… Is that good for the other world? Is that what you want to let happen?"_

"_No, but…" Rich started hesitating. Maybe he should keep it silent, or tell it to a select few people. But still, he was not going to enter that pipe! The guides mentioned Rich's hesitating, but somehow also realized that he still was not going._

"_And think about the legends. Was that not part of the reason you came?"_

"_I came because the starfestival is supposed to be beautiful, or that's what you told me.." Rich corrected, but without denying what the guides said. The smirks grew very slightly, because they knew how honest this boy was. Never lying, but sometimes not telling the whole truth… A bit naïve as well._

"_Sure, but still… Think about it… This is a chance you will never get again…" The female guide whispered, Rich still hesitating. What would he face? An oversized giraffe? A thief with a slight ego? But then again, how likely was that going to happen? If it was dangerous, the World Culture Lottery would never have hold the lottery with this kind of prize in mind. For once, Rich was lucky enough to win a prize… The first one as well. Maybe lady Fortune was on his side…_

"_So, what's it going to be?" The male spoke, an insisting tone in the words._

"_Fine, I go… Just let me first get my coffer and rucksack…" Rich responded, but before he could walk away, the female guide blocked his way._

"_We will do that for you. Just go in there, and enjoy the stay… You can return whenever you want by reentering the pipe…" Both guides grabbed Rich's shoulder, pushing him softly towards the pipe._

"_You're really wanting me to enter it, aren't you?" Rich questioned weakly, not knowing if this situation could use a joke. He figured it out when the guides ignored it._

_"Don't worry about all the odd creatures you will see there. They are all friendly…" The male guide said, Rich looking in shock at this statement. But if they were all friendly… Nope, the creatures would not change this decision. Once Rich was close to the warp pipe, he climbed over the side, legs first, and dropped himself into the pipe. Well, he felt more sucked in though…_

Now on third thought… He shouldn't have entered that pipe. Creatures friendly? If nearly becoming lunch was friendly, then Rich was sure that his definition of 'friendly' should be changed. With a last sigh, Rich took out his ds, and started playing with it, killing time…

* * *

"So soon back with a power star?" Luna asked, amazed how fast that was. The chapter didn't even reach over 3000 words yet!

"If there's only floating planets and no boss, yes." Mario answered, just handing the power star he managed to collect over.

"No boss? That ain't possible!" Luna was in a huge shock, before realizing that it wasn't a problem at all. "Err… Sorry about that. But where did you find that power star?"

"On an abandoned airship." Mario responded, before switching over to another subject. "Is the airship fixed by now?"

"The airship is fixed!" A completely random shout came from the other side of the ship.

"Does that answer your question?" Luna asked, before floating off to see the toad brigade that worked on the fixing. After some minor reports, everything was deemed fine to leave. Which they did. Mario stood near the steer of the ship, wondering whether the princesses were at the next castle…

* * *

**Rushed ending! I really want to get this story done… And I realized the biggest part of the chapters were always random bosses, so… I got rid of those bosses and galaxies. If it wasn't for the fact that I was quite far already with this chapter, I would've just skipped towards the next one and place Rich's history in there.**

**Sigh… Is it just me, or does this story become worse and worse as it progresses? If I were to review this chapter myself, then I would have commented that the story lacks detail… That, and that world 2 was supposed to not have Rich in here too much. Yet, the biggest part of this chapter was again about Rich. Next chapter will maybe only have a single reference to him, but world 3 will all be about him…**

**Next time, I really should plan to do more with Mario and Luigi. No wait, next time I should focus less on areas and bosses and more about character development. I'm starting to regret to write this story…**

**Oh well, let's just end my ranting. Next chapter world 2 ends, so I think you know who's the boss of next chapter. Review if you want. I probably only get one from Dimentio713 and maybe from Sparty McFly, and I must thank you for reviewing this story multiple times. At the very least, somebody cares about this story. I nearly don't anymore…**

**Ciao, because Ciao seems to become popular on the Mario selection of this site…**


	12. World 2: Smart and stupid plans

**No reviews? Guess that's what I get after last author note. Sorry you had to go through that (if you didn't skip it…). I promise to not complain anymore. … Ok, let's continue.**

**Shorter chapter than usual, and it took more time… My apologies to those who read these story.**

**Disclaimer: … Again? I do not own Mario or anything else of his series, Nintendo does. GET IT THROUGH YOUR SKULL! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO REMEMBER! … Ahem. Let's start.**

* * *

"Sir, they're coming…"

"Mario and co?"

"Yes, your awesomeness. They found the power star on the airship."

"The power star with the tracking device?"

* * *

"We have arrived, men!" Luna shouted out as a commander, the airship stopping just before a huge gate of a huge castle in space. "The enemy army is waiting. But do not fear! Because this will be the day, the day that people will remember as the day Mario beat Bowser!"

"Again…" Luigi added, getting a smack from Luna.

"You had to ruin the moment, didn't you?" Luna said angrily, while Mario was grinning at the joke. Some humor before facing the boss always calmed down the nerves. That is, as far Mario was still nervous from facing Bowser. Having beaten him several times, he wasn't that scary anymore. Mario was still a slightly nervous, but that was because the castle hadn't attacked the airship. Had somebody laid out a trap?

Mario walked off the airship, towards the huge gate. The people on the airship cheered Mario as he neared. Mario mentioned that Rich was missing, but that didn't really matter. He didn't probably know about Mario was about to face something…

Just before Mario touched the wooden gate, it slowly opened. The crowd stopped cheering, watching for what would happen. When opened enough, Mario slowly walked in the inside, the gates closing behind him. The crowd would have to wait for the results…

"Finally arrived, plumber? You had me waiting." A thunderous voice said mocking, Mario looking up to see who spoke. It was Bowser himself, a gigantic himself. He was sitting on a huge throne, looking from up to the hero.

"Stop the talk, Bowser. What are you planning this time?" Mario asked angrily.

"Stop the talk? And you're asking me what my plan is? I think you're the one talking." Bowser laughed at the joke, before continuing. "But to answer your question…" Bowser lifted his right arm. Mario mentioned, and prepared to dodge whatever Bowser's attack would be. "My plan is to finally get rid of you!"

Bowser slammed his fist right on his throne, deactivating the gravity that hold Mario on the ground. As a result, Mario flew upwards, being attracted by the gravity of something else. Mario quickly turned around in the air, so he would not land on his head. Only to see there was no bottom yet… Small panic appeared on Mario's face as he fell down, towards the tower of the castle. As if the fact that the ground was nowhere to be seen wasn't bad enough, Bowser floated after him, the grand star in him granting the king to fly wherever he wanted.

**Big Boss: Bowser, King of the koopas!**

**Mario: 100/100**

**Bowser: 250/250**

"Let's see if you can dance in the air, plumber!" Bowser laughed, while spitting out fireballs towards the hero. The fireballs neared, but Mario managed to move aside, dodging them. But Bowser fired off more fire balls, which Mario dodged as well, though with a little bit more difficulty. Bowser gradually became mad as all the fire balls were dodged.

"You can't dodge them all!" Bowser roared as he spitted out more fireballs, but Mario always dodged by moving out of the way. Bowser finally changed tactics, now instead of spitting out fireballs, spewing flames at the plumber. The huge flames came close, even to the point of hitting Mario.

**Mario: 80/100**

Bowser laughed as the plumber tried to put out the flames. When Mario did, he decided he was sick of being a target and moved off to the walls of the tower. He touched them, slowing down Mario's speed. Bowser saw it, but thought of it as nothing. He flew at Mario at the same speed as before, spitting fireballs out again. Mario dodged them by wall jumping, clinging on another part of the wall. Bowser now incredibly came close towards the plumber. Which was exactly what he had hoped for. He wall jumped again, flying towards the belly of the monster. With all his might, Mario hit Bowser in the belly.

**Bowser: 220/250**

Bowser coughed due the hit while Mario pushed himself away. "So, you can still fight…"

"What made you think otherwise?" Mario taunted, while looking down. After the amounts of time falling down, he finally saw the bottom. The bottom took form as a small planet. Mario carefully guided himself through the air. He landed perfectly on the planet, immediately running away as Bowser fell on the planet too, though due the direction and the speed he was traveling with, not due the gravity of the planet.. He landed less perfectly than the red man.

**Bowser: 200/250**

Bowser stood up and floated away from the small planet, Mario looking at him. Once far enough, Bowser circled over the planet, straight towards Mario. "Okay, that didn't go as I expected, but now the tides have turned!" Bowser prepared a fist, which Mario mentioned. As Bowser launched the attack, Mario jumped out of the way. Bowser tried to return his hand, but due the force, his hand had gotten deep in the planet and quite stuck into it as well.

While Bowser was having trouble, Mario ran back towards the arm. He started mindlessly punching it, which had no effect at all. Well, except with Mario shaking his hands, in an attempt to get rid of the pain that had been caused due that.

"Stupid plumber! You really think that would have any effect?" Bowser laughed, finally managing to free his hand from the dirt. "Now prepare for a real punch!" Mario listened, and indeed prepared for the attack. To dodge it, of course. Mario jumped out of the way as Bowser tried his attack. Realizing he had missed again, he tried to return his arm. No success, because it was again stuck in the planet.

"Having troubles, Bowser?" Mario asked as he smirked at Bowser.

"You might find this funny, but it will be more funny when you're under it!" Bowser laughed while still trying to free his arm.

"One problem with that; I'm not under it." Mario ran up to Bowser's arm, but instead of mindlessly punching, he jumped up the arm, running on it. All Bowser did was looking in surprise at the red plumber, who now was by Bowser's shoulder, running for the head. Now realizing he should do something, Bowser tried shaking his head, only to find out that his gravity hold Mario on him. Though Mario had to grip one of Bowser's horns in order to not be flung away.

Now finally standing on Bowser's head, Mario punched it more times than one, dealing much damage to the poor (though… who finds him poor?) Koopa king.

**Bowser: 140/250**

Bowser roared out in pain, but Mario wasn't finished. He jumped up, and ground pounded on the head of the Koopa King.

**Bowser: 90/250**

Bowser grunted in pain this time, but before he had the chance to grab Mario and throw him away, the plumber had already ran to Bowser's belly, and ground pounded there as well.

**Bowser: 10/250**

The force of the ground pound forced the grand star that Bowser had swallowed out. Seeing the grand star flying out of his mouth, Bowser tried to grab it to swallow it again, but the distant between the two of them suddenly enlarged when Bowser shrunk back to normal. Without the grand star, Bowser lost the power to fly, and both him and Mario fell back to the small planet. Mario landed perfectly, but Bowser landed a bit more roughly.

"Don't tell me…" Bowser grunted while trying to stand up. "I lost the fight… again?"

"Yes, Bowser, you did. Now care to say your plan? You've got to have a good reason for kidnapping Daisy as well." Mario said suspiciously. Bowser had only a crush on Peach. So indeed, why had the king kidnapped princess Daisy as well?

"Who's Daisy?" Bowser asked, surprise on his face. Mario didn't trust that answer, before he saw the surprise on king's face. Sighing, Mario answered.

"The princess of Sarassaland. Wears usually an orange dress or an orange top with orange shorts, on both clothes a green gem surrounded by petals. Has further orange hair. Might have a crush on my brother. Do you now remember, Bowser?" Bowser seemed to think about it, rather a long time, so long Mario became tired of waiting. Then Bowser finally said something.

"Err… Nope, I don't remember her. But why should I care? I'm about to conquer this universe, and there's absolutely nothing going to stop me! Next time, Mario, you will perish!" With that, Bowser surrounded himself with dark energy, just before teleporting to somewhere. Mario grabbed the grand star.

You got a grand star!

But now, Mario had one problem. How was he going to get back to the ship again? It was then that the gravity of the bottom of the castle was restored. How Mario managed to figure that one out? He did while falling down towards the bottom…

* * *

"I tell you, there's no treasure in here!" Waluigi snapped They had been walking in this castle for a way too long time, and no treasure was to be found anywhere.

"I know that koopa, he has to have treasure somewhere…" Wario said while carefully looking around a corner. They were getting near the throne hall, and the minions would get smarter the nearer they got. Till they were smart enough to see through the cover of Wario and Waluigi. Or so Waluigi theorized. Wario didn't agree at first, but after being offered a garlic… He suddenly changed his opinion.

"And yet I'm telling you, we won't find money here." Waluigi had just finished his last word, before the bad boys suddenly stood before an over-sized metallic red door. Both of them stood amazed before it, maybe because it was an unnecessary large door, or because on it was written: "Bowser's treasure. Do not enter without permission. And without permission, I mean never. Face third-grade burns otherwise."

"You were saying?" Wario asked, his eyes already turning into two large $.

"Who cares what I said! Open that door!" Waluigi commanded, his eyes also becoming $. Wario only gave a smirk, sure that this door would open. No door could prevent the great Wario from finding treasure!

Except this one, so turned out after an hour. Wario had by now smashed the door several times, using his fists, his head, Waluigi's head, their shells, everything else that was around, and all things not mentioned yet.

Okay, this door is not opening easy…" Wario concluded, while Waluigi was laying down due the headache he had gotten.

"Maybe we should say a password or something…" Waluigi rolled over, not caring the floor was cold. Actually, the cold helped to lessen the pain.

"Err… The whole universe belongs to Bowser?" Wario guessed, but the door didn't respond. Wario tried again. "Bowser is the best ever?" The door remained on his spot like a wall. "Bowser and Peach are the perfect couple ever?" The door still didn't do anything. Except opening.

"Third time is the charm." Waluigi commented, as the door slowly moved… Just a few seconds more and they could see all the treasure Bowser had collected… Each and every single coin… Soon, to be owned by Waluigi and mostly Wario… Wario's mouth was open, spit dropping from his mouth to the ground… Which started melting. Melting? What does Wario eat?

Oh well, finally an opening wide enough to look through. Wario couldn't hold himself any longer, and looked into it…

**Wario: 0/180**

Waluigi mouth dropped as he saw a mysterious figure coming out of nowhere, and slamming something down on the yellow thief. On the head. And that head is hard. But somehow, Wario still fell to the ground. The mysterious figure didn't seem to care, and turned around to face the other thief… But Waluigi had already taken off with Wario.

* * *

"This should do the trick!" A female voice resounded through the castle walls, and a bang shortly followed. Something heavy fell on the floor, followed by a step on something metallic. This all happened in the prison of the palace, and Daisy gave an approving look at her work.

"Really, who does not watch his prisoners? Did he expect me to just goof around?" Daisy said to herself, turning around to her cell. She had spent a few days there now, searching for a way to get out. At first she had thought of rather smart ones, like using a spoon to dig a way out. But that idea was quickly dismissed as she realized that she could simply smash her way out. With her crystallizing arm ability, or whatever it's called. This author found it too unimportant to find out.

"Took longer than I expected…" Daisy straightened her dress. Why again did she have to wear a dress and not some simple clothes? Would be easier to escape with. "But now to find a way out…"

She navigated through the palace, carefully looking around the corner if there was somebody. Not that she was afraid, she could easily take on a minion. But she preferred to remain as long as possible undiscovered.

Minutes passed, and Daisy still hadn't a clue on where she was. Or Peach. Peach was also kidnapped, and probably brought to here… But Daisy's theory seemed to be wrong for now. Time continued, and Daisy grew a little nervous. She was in a big dark castle, with many guards wanting to capture her again. She also didn't know where she was. Was she actually still in the Mushroom Kingdom? The few windows she saw, were all filled with light from stars… But Daisy had the feeling it wasn't night yet.

**Daisy: 0/110**

She never saw what hit her, only the cold floor where she came to lay…

* * *

"I can't believe it! I've been beaten by that blasted plumber!"

"Again." Kamek added to his master's words while binding Bowser's head.

"That detail was not needed!" Bowser roared, scaring all of his minions in the castle. Even his children, who were pretty much used to their dad's roars by now, trembled in fear.

"But not to worry, my king." Kamek said, chuckling a bit. Oh, he had a plan. A plan, that would finally help Bowser to destroy that plumber.

"Do I look like the type to worry?" Bowser was pretty much pissed off now. How dared his right hand to make such insult?

"That may explain much…" Kamek thought for a moment, because worry was sometimes good. He then shook his head. "But greatness of awesomeness, I have a plan…"

"Spill the beans. Or else I put you into a turtle and bean soup." Bowser commanded, Kamek finishing with his head and now binding Bowser's arm.

"I've prepared… A secret weapon."

* * *

**And I've completed this blasted chapter. And world 2. Shortest world ever. Onwards to world 3! … Which I may call Rich's world. Seriously, Rich will take the spotlight in all following chapters. Then again… This is called character development… First world next would be Rich's and my favorite world. Why? … All I'm going to say, Piantas will appear in the next one… And no, I am no fan of them. There's something else…**

**Before you question the fact that Daisy and Wario were one-hit defeated, a surprise attack always delivers more damage than the one you expect… Though whatever hit Wario must be really strong, with his head and all.**

**Just one more thing before closing off. I'm going to write a few one-shots next. One a parody of *Insert character name here* answers your questions, another has something to do with Mario Sports Mix… **

**And that was that. Good bye, or Ciao, or whatever you prefer.****  
**


	13. World 3: Rolling troubles

**And we're back with another chapter! Now we start with world 3, the world with the most events! And it all starts with this chapter… That lacks HP, simply because I get the feeling it limits me… Many location switches I see now... But let's just start with this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Read previous chapters. Nothing changed since those.**

* * *

World number 3. Mario looked to the direction the starship was moving to. No sign of Peach or Daisy yet. Had he to wait for world 6 again, before facing Bowser again? What was Bowser planning? Questions unanswered, but all he could do for now was to wait. The nerves of waiting would hopefully not kill him, though they were already being a pain.

"Is something the matter, bro?" Luigi asked, placing his arm on Mario's shoulder.

"Do I look like there's something wrong?" Luigi looked at his brother's face. Eyes, tired by the action, his chin hanging a bit down. Facts that gave away something wrong, but they weren't the major hints that Luigi had looked at. Mario was moving his finger nervously through his hair.

"I know you. There's something wrong."

"What gave it away?" Mario questioned.

"Your finger." Luigi answered, pointing at Mario's hair. Mario stopped with twisting his hair, and moved his hand before his face, sighing.

"I hadn't even mentioned that I was doing that."

"No trying to cover your problems up with jokes, Mario. What's wrong?"

"Nothing too really special. I'm just wondering how long this journey will take, if we arrive early enough…"

"Mario, it's my thing to worry about that. But you will see: You will go, beat Bowser, save the princesses, and in the end, we all have cake. One that isn't a lie." Mario chuckled a bit about that overused joke.

"I guess so…"

"You know what you need? A break. And not one like that trip to the piantas. That one ended up in trouble."

"I can't take a break now. Peach still needs to be saved. If I said I want to take a break, Toadsworth would take one too. A breakdown." Luigi could not help but agree with that. Toadsworth was trusting them to rescue the princesses. That trust was probably the only thing keeping Toadsworth sane now. And a break would surely take that trust away…

"Guess what we're going to?" Luna suddenly interrupted the talk between the two brothers, absolutely not mentioning that it was about something important. Once they came back to their senses, Luigi answered hesitantly, just guessing.

"An amusement park?" Luna's eyes immediately became big in surprise.

"Who told you that?" Luna exclaimed, demanding an answer. She was about to surprise them, not get surprised.

"Wait, I was right?" Luigi and Mario looked at each other, first in surprise, but then nodded to each other. Without any talk, they made a plan…

"Yes, you were. Wait, does that mean you didn't know it? Oh well, who cares. Anyway, we have sources to believe there's a power star there, so no slacking off the job. We're nearing…" Luna suddenly stopped, shock written on her face. The two brothers looked at each other, before Luna continued. "Nah, not important. Just do it quick, OK?" The two brothers nodded, which for some reason comforted Luna. She then hovered away, planning to tell somebody else about it as well…

* * *

How long had he remained in his room, playing on his DS? Rich had no knowledge about that, nor about what was happening on the deck. He didn't care. If he did, he would lose his sanity. He was here now way longer than he was supposed to. He wanted to go home. See his mother, father, school… He didn't even mind to do some homework, just to get back. The fact that he was in this crazy and dangerous dimension didn't really help his homesickness.

"Rich, are you there?" The voice of Luna sounded through the room, the door remaining closed though.

"Yes, why?" He answered, not looking away from the DS. He paused the game, though.

"I don't know whether you care or not, but we're nearing an amusement park."

"In space? You're kidding." Was she trying to get on his nerves or something?

"I'm not kidding."

"You are, because there's no logic of an amusement park in space. No people pass the park, so no profit, so no company. Simple as that." He was just planning to continue his game, when Luna started talking.

"Not to be harsh or something, but since when did this universe have logic?"

"There's gotta be some logic somewhere…" Rich merely answered.

"For your information, there isn't. And if you think I'm lying about the amusement park, then come see it. We're nearing it."

"Fine." Rich shut his DS off, before walking along with Luna to the deck. No words were said on the way. After some walk, the two of them finally arrived, within sight… An awesome big amusement park! A duel roller coaster was on more planets than one, merry-go-rounds were build on a main planet, a ghost house stood in the middle… Rich's mouth dropped to the ground, before the glint of amusement shone in his eyes.

"I'm totally going into the roller coaster." Was all what he said.

* * *

After having paid the tickets for all passengers of the faceship, they all ran towards something. Most lumas went to the merry-go-rounds, a few braver ones to the ghost house, Rich to the roller coaster, Yoshi to the snacks. Only Mario, Luigi, E. Gadd, Toadsworth and Luna remained by the entrance.

"Fascinating… Attractions in space…" And then E. Gadd wandered off, wanting to investigate the roller coaster.

"Well, there's gotta be a power star somewhere." Luna repeated. "So go on and find it, while I keep an eye to the lumas."

"I will remain here too, masters Mario and Luigi. I'm too old to enter any of these attractions… Please find the star fast, I cannot wait much longer for the princesses…" Toadsworth took a seat, trying to relax a bit.

"Well Mario, where shall we 'investigate' first?" Luigi whispered to Mario. They had a plan. Mario needed a break, and a power star wouldn't be that dangerous to find here. Thus they had decided that Luigi would search for it, while Mario would enter some attractions in the meantime. Real bros, don't you think?

But their plan got crushed when the owner of the park (a pianta) came to Luna. "Please! Help us!"

"What's the matter?" Luna asked, already having figured out that whatever was what the owner wanted help for, was linked to the location of the power star.

"Some brat did weird stuff to the duel roller coaster, and now one of the trains on the track refuses to listen to the controls! It destructs everyone that enters in the other train!"

"Wait, the roller coaster?" The bros exclaimed in horror.

* * *

"I wonder why there's no queue…" Rich muttered while he entered the roller coaster. "It doesn't look that wild…" He didn't mention that at the very start of the queue path, a 'no entry' sign was placed. None of the piantas who placed the sign, thought about warning those that were already waiting…

Getting a whole train for yourself is something you do not achieve every day, and Rich looked amused because of that. A break from this trial… The train started riding, catching Rich off guard. Falling back in his seat (for some reason, this ride allowed you to just stand in the coaster. Not like anything could happen…), Rich muttered something about 'less painful start'. Rich tried to see the other train on the duel coaster, but the sight was blocked by a wall.

Slowly driving upwards on the chain hill, Rich decided to look around again in the park, maybe some attractions he could enter after this one… A merry-go-round… A ghost-house… A snackbar… The front lights of the other train staring at him murderous… That was all the things Rich saw.

Wait, the other train was STARING at him? Rich quickly looked back to where he had just seen the train, and to his shock, the other train was indeed staring at him.

"Is this normal?" Rich said a bit terrified, looking at the front lights of his train. They didn't look at the other one. Rich looked back at the other train, now mentioning that the doors had some weird gun like opening. But that wasn't the worst. On the doors of the other train suddenly appeared spikes, that looked like they could hurt very much.

"That's not normal." As both trains were nearly at the top, the 'evil' train suddenly replaced the seats in the cars with bazooka-like pipes, and those launched… Missiles? The missiles that were fired, headed towards the cars of Rich's train, and hit them head-on. They exploded in a mass of metal, leaving only Rich's car to continue.

"Definitely not normaaaaaaaaaaaal!" Rich screamed at the top of his lungs, his car and the evil train finally at the top and now going down the hill.

**BOSS: Ultra Rolling Train: Train that gets rid of you!**

"SCRAM YOU WITH YOUR BOSSES, AUTHOR!" Rich screamed at none, his car speeding up due the fall. "I'M SCREAMING AT YOU, AND YOU KNOW IT!" While Rich continued screaming, the Rolling Train sped up, riding faster than Rich's car. It didn't take long before it rode ahead of the two trains. Which was apparently exactly that this reprogrammed train wanted, as it fired a group of missiles at Rich's track. They hit straight on, causing a whole part of the track to be blasted away.

"OH MY!" With Rich continuing to scream, his car rode straight towards the gap. This was the end. Rich knew for sure. He failed in what he thought was a trial of some sorts. He wasn't worth one after all. Those legends were false.

As the car neared the end, Rich tried to pull the car up, in desperation to survive. If this was earth, then it wouldn't help at all.

Of course, this wasn't earth, and this universe lacks logic, thus Rich's attempt actually saved him. His car flew thanks to the pull upwards, over the gap, and landing on the track on the other side. While the wind was blowing through his hair, Rich looked back at the gap, not believing he had actually passed it.

But he had no time to waste, and he turned around. Only to be greeted by the wind blowing straight in his face due the speed of this coaster, and eight missiles, straight heading for his head. Rich was too surprised and in shock to do anything, but the track just turned to the left. Rich, not prepared for that either, stumbled to the left, evading an explosive ending to his life.

* * *

"Is it just me, or does that coaster have a gap there?" Luigi pointed to a specific point at the beginning of the track, causing Mario, E. Gadd and the director of the park to look at it.

"NO! MY COASTERS!" The pianta director cried out loud, causing some of the lumas that were nearby to look at him.

"Err… Shouldn't we be more concerned about the passengers?" E. Gadd questioned, seeing that two trains (well, one train and a car) were riding on it. A few moments ago, while E. Gadd was looking at the amazing form of the coaster, the Mario brothers explained the situation to him.

"There aren't any customers in it. A few moments ago, I ordered to close it." The director explained calmly, before going crazy again about his expensive coaster.

"Are you sure about that?" Luigi asked as they all could hear a fainted scream in the distance.

"NO! MY CUSTOMERS!" The director cried out this time.

"How about we check up on the roller coasters, instead of just standing here?" Mario asked, and all agreed. They all ran towards the entrance…

* * *

Back to Rich, who was still struggling to keep himself alive. The evil coaster fired off missiles again, who all were now flying towards Rich. In the few moments between firing and hitting, Rich finally got to his senses, and ducked. They narrowly passed Rich, and continued flying. A sudden turn to the right got Rich off guard, and smacked him on the right of the car. The other train, though only following a program and not knowing what exactly was happening to the other car, took advance of that, firing missiles again to the track. The pieces of the struck part flew around as little comets. Rich climbed up again, just to mention that he was driving in the gap. Repeating the process he had done before, he pushed his car upwards, evading death again. As the coaster rode up a hill, a voice suddenly spoke.

"All customers in the coaster, please do not worry. We have everything under control."

"Yeah, right!" Rich exclaimed, again ducking to avoid another load of missiles.

"We now enable the speakers that we've installed in all cars. Please give a sign whether you're alive or not."

* * *

"And if I were death, how was I supposed to do it?" Rich's voice rang through the control room.

"Rich? So you're the one in there?" E. Gadd asked surprised.

"Depends on where 'there' is, but if you mean the coaster, yes. Now, may I friendly ask for somebody to shut off this thing?"

"It can't be helped!" The director called out while pushing a few buttons. "The corrupted train doesn't get controlled from here anymore!"

"And the other one?" Mario asked, but the director only shook his head.

"Lost contact with that one as well." The director sighed, walking back to the others.

"Great. If I die, I want to get buried, not cremated." Rich replied while ducking again in order to avoid some missiles.

"Rich." Mario suddenly started. "What's that corrupted train exactly doing?"

"Huh?" Rich was surprised, as were all others. "Well, it's riding on the other track, ahead of me, while shooting missiles from the cars that either blow up a part of the track, or try to hit me."

"Can't you somehow reflect those missiles back to the train? I remember you telling me something about how you defeated Popple and that giraffe…"

It remained silent for a while on the other side, making some think Rich had passed away. However, he suddenly spoke.

* * *

"WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT?" Rich's car jumped over a gap again. That was just fail for his brain. Epic fail. The track took a turn to the left, but Rich saw it coming and grabbed the sides of his car, preventing him from falling. The corrupted train again launched a few missiles, but this time, Rich was prepared. He charged up his arm, and when the missiles neared, punched them all with his now yellow arm. They flew faster than they came back to the other train, hitting the rearmost car. It exploded.

"That's odd…" Rich said as he looked at his arm. "They never flew faster away than they came…"

"And? Did it work?" Mario's voice spoke from the speakers.

"Yes, it worked!" Rich answered while charging another arm up again. The other train hadn't mentioned it had lost a car, and also didn't mention when another one was lost. And another one. Yet another. This continued, till finally, finally the whole corrupted train had exploded. And Rich was still conscious this time!

From the last car, a yellow star flew in the sky, towards the entrance. Just when Rich arrived, Mario had already grabbed the power star!

YOU GOT A POWER STAR!

"Thanks, captain obvious!" Rich exclaimed at nobody. After being greeted by the others and receiving some compliments, the crew decided that they just should leave now. As all lumas boarded the Faceship 2 again, and after getting Yoshi away from the food, the crew flew away…

"But what about my coasters?" The director quietly asked.

* * *

**And so, world 3 started. You gotta wonder what surviving all those bosses does to Rich… It might help his confidence… Especially now that he didn't end up unconscious…**

**This was actually a fun chapter to write. But the next one will be more fun… It's time for a shock event next chapter. If you know what will happen next chapter, then you're good. But I'm pretty sure you won't figure it out. Though, maybe someone in this chapter accidently said a hint about one part of the next chapter… But that isn't the shock event…**

**Well, hopefully, you enjoyed the chapter. See you till next time…**


	14. World 3: The two sides of each coin

**Who wondered what Luna was worrying about in previous chapter? The answer is in this one. And yes, she is who slipped something. But let's just see what this chapter contains…**

**Disclaimer: … The solems are my creation, Rich is and Luna a bit, and let's not forget the plot, but all other things in the chapter are of Nintendo.**

* * *

After the events of the amusement park, all was peaceful on the Faceship 2. That's what I wanted to say, and it's true for the biggest part, but…

"Evade next planet. NOW!" Luna tried taking over the steering wheel of the ship, but the steering luma fought bravely against Luna's attempts. What was Luna's problem anyway? The next planet, which they were already nearing, was just some old ground planet. Nothing special.

"Listen to what I say!" Luna commanded angrily but also a bit nervously, finally pushing the poor luma away. Grabbing the metal, she steered it with a big turn to the right. The twist the ship made, knocked everyone not flying to the ground.

"What's going on?" Mario shouted while running to the wheel. Seeing Luna sighing in relief, Mario thought that whatever problem had happened, was done.

"Absolutely nothing!" Luna exclaimed too cheerful. Way too cheerful. It was now also that Mario mentioned the luma lying on the solid ground, curling itself due the pain of landing.

"There's something happening." Mario concluded, looking back at Luna. Her nerves started acting yet again.

"Err, yes, he got sick and thus I had to replace him…" Not only was the luma shaking his head in disagreement, but Mario also mentioned they were driving around a planet, instead of heading to it.

"Why are we skipping that planet?" Mario asked, demanding an answer. Luigi, E. Gadd, Toadsworth, the toad brigade, Yoshi and even Rich, who was usually in his room ignoring everything else, showed up. Most of them hold with their hands their hurting heads.

"Because it doesn't have a power star." Luna answered, driving the ship further from the planet.

"How do you know?" Rich asked, looking over to some kind of computer nearby.

"Sources." Luna quickly answered, but Rich shook his head in disagreement.

"False. This computer states that a power star IS on that planet. I believe this is your 'sources'?"

"What are you hiding, Luna? You have never acted like this before." Luigi inquired.

"Well… Err… That computer has a defect!" Luna attempted, but the luma again shook his head in disagreement. None mentioned that the planet opened some kind of large gate in the soil.

"It doesn't! What are you-…!" Mario never had a chance to finish his sentence, as a large magnet on the planet was aimed at them. The Faceship, mostly made out of metal, despite the ground surface, immediately stopped moving to where Luna was driving, and instead, slowly, but while gaining speed, moved to the magnet. None got hurt when they were forced to land on the planet.

"What's…" Rich wanted to ask, but before anything else could happen, creatures, with a drill for their nose and claws, that looked like moles as well, entered the ship. All of them were wearing some security cap, quickly shrouding the group. Before they knew it, Luna's hands were enraptured.

"Thought you would escape judgment, criminal?" They all, except the moles, looked up, seeing some kind of gigantic version of the smaller moles.

"Your law stinks." Luna responded, upon which this mole immediately become furious.

"Take her away! Her trail will be hold tomorrow." Upon this command, Luna, and only Luna, was grabbed and taken away. The bigger mole looked at Mario.

"You're Mario, aren't you? You fit the description Bowser gave me…" Mario, Luigi, the toad brigade and Yoshi immediately took a fighting pose, while others hid themselves away. Rich only took a few steps backwards, looking more confused than afraid.

"Wanting to fight me? I don't want to fight you. That criminal of the stars is more important to me. In fact…" The heroes didn't bring down their defenses yet. "If you just let the trail end, I will give you the power star Bowser entrusted to me. I'll give you my word." And with that, this mole king left.

"Case closed." Rich stated, before walking away. Everything would end up fine according to him.

"Luna, a criminal?" Mario questioned, more to determine whether the events that had just happened were real than a real question.

"I can't believe it either." E. Gadd stated, dazed due the events.

"Whether it was real or not, that king made a good propose to us." All looked to Toadsworth, surprised by what he said. "Even though we have to thank miss Luna for bringing us this far, she's a criminal. And they need to get a trial. And we mustn't forget our goal to save the princesses."

"Toadsworth, while you do have a point, I don't think we just should go and agree with this." Now everyone looked to Luigi, though not in surprise. "Remember Pianta island, Mario? You were sentenced for something you didn't do. Who says that isn't the case this time? And the moles here are apparently siding with Bowser, otherwise he wouldn't entrust them a power star. There's something fishy here…"

"We are not moles, but solems. And indeed, there's something fishy…" Now everybody looked… Wait, where is who said that anyway? Err… Everyone started searching for the source of the voice, and found him standing behind them.

"What's fishy, then?" Toadsworth asked, only to receive an answer in the form of the solem shaking his head.

"We can't talk here. Is there somewhere… where nobody sees us?" They all thought about it, and decided that maybe the best spot was below the deck of the starship. The company, including the solem, moved downstairs, while Rich came back. Apparently, he had left his backpack here. But who cares about that?

Once everyone took a seat in the dining room the author just thought up, the solem checked if somebody was watching us. When he discovered nobody was, he closed the door behind him, and started telling…

"Fifty years ago… When I wasn't even born… We all lived peacefully here. We exported all things of jewels and diamonds, and this planet became one of the richest in the whole universe. However… On a dark day, our president died. An election was hold the very next day, but nobody voted, still sad about the death of our kind president. All, except one.

They should have known that he would take this to his advantage. Carbo, who was waiting for a day like this and hold the election, voted for himself to be president. Because nobody else went, and nobody else got a vote, he became our new president. All changed quickly, with our law quickly becoming bigger. All money would go to him, all of us needed to work in the mines, you weren't allowed to help somebody else out except him… The day he crowned himself king, we all knew it was too late. I was born when that happened, twenty years ago…"

"Nice story, but what has this to do with Luna?" Luigi interrupted.

"I was getting to her. Precisely one year ago, a starship appeared here. With Luna as its new captain. She was only here to transport some jewels, but she wandered off in the mines. One where I was working. I was sweating to keep up to the tempo, but I failed. A punishment was awaiting for me, till she came and helped me with delivering a bottle of water. I managed to keep up, but she sealed her own life that day…"

"She only helped you, why was that bad for her?" This time, the question came from Toadsworth.

"Forgot what I said? A law says that you're not allowed to help anyone else but the king. He was afraid that if we helped each other, we would form a group to overthrow him. Luna helped someone. And for that, she could get executed, even though she wasn't from here."

"She could get what?" E. Gadd this time.

"Yoshi?" And that was obviously Yoshi.

"Executed. She wasn't exactly trying to hide it, thus they figured it out quickly. She managed to flee before they could get her…"

"So that's why she didn't want to go here…" Luigi concluded.

"Well, we just can't let that happen!" Everyone looked to Mario. "She did something good, and she would get punished for it? That's just wrong!"

"Indeed it is." The solem started. "But we can't do anything against it."

"Yes, we can! We only need to rescue her!" Mario exclaimed, but Toadsworth didn't agree.

"But then we don't have the power star…"

"Then we need to take it away from that king. Even if we have to defeat him for it." Mario said heroic. His voice caused the sound of somebody falling outside the dining room to not be heard.

"Err… Defeat him? Count me…" Luigi started, but Mario knew what he wanted to say.

"Yes Luigi, we count you in. We'll go tonight." And thus, the plan was formed. All left the room (the solem as fast as he could, in order to prevent somebody missing him), and night quickly fell.

Mario and Luigi stood on the deck of the faceship, softly jumping from it. Mario landed perfectly on his feet, while Luigi landed perfectly on his head. After Mario checked up on him, he stood up and both walked stealthily on the brown ground. The moon gave them enough light to see around them, but that also meant others would see them. But they weren't in the danger zone yet. They first had to pass a passage of two cliffs near each other, forming some kind of gate.

Upon nearing, they made sure nobody was guarding it. However, just as they passed it…

"Hold it!" A male voice reached their ears. They turned around, and saw…

* * *

_A few hours ago…_

Toadsworth was considering the plan both master Mario and master Luigi were planning. He was walking on the deck of the faceship. They were planning to break the corrupted rules of this planet. While he agreed that Luna didn't deserve dead, he wondered whether there wasn't another way of doing this. They could try to defend Luna at her trial… But then again, that king did whatever he wanted. They wouldn't stand a single chance to get Luna out of problems.

Another problem. Toadsworth tried past days to let Rich join the brothers on their journey, but was that something an advisor would actually do? Sending a teenager to danger. He would never do that with the princess, while more times than not, she wanted to go. And Rich doesn't want to. Besides, Mario and Luigi often saved the day without any help. Why was Rich then needed? Not, so Toadsworth finally concluded.

Toadsworth decided to depart to his room. He was otherwise only walking here, not doing anything… Just as he wanted to go downstairs, he saw Rich walking, a troubled look on his face.

"Young sir Rich, is there something wrong?" Rich had already passed Toadsworth, but turned his head to look who was the source of the question. Seeing Toadsworth, he decided to just answer.

"No." Rich wanted to continue his path, but Toadsworth decided to not let him leave with that.

"I can see on your face that there's something wrong. Do you have homesickness?" Rich sighed, annoyed that he was apparently as easy as book to read. No, as a toddler book even.

"While I do have trouble with that, it's not what troubles me most." How much Rich now wanted to go away, he couldn't. Toadsworth would follow him, of that he was sure.

"What is it then?"

"Well…" Rich stopped, thinking carefully about what to say to make it understandable. "It's just like… Something happens, and you don't agree with it, but you have to let it happen anyway. There's nothing you can do about it, because so many do it."

Toadsworth took in the words, trying to figure out what Rich was exactly talking about. Maybe… Maybe Rich himself wanted to join Mario and Luigi? He was hesitating about that? Despite previous decision to stop with convincing Rich, Toadsworth told an answer with an aim of that anyway.

"Well, look. You're young. Are you sure you can't do anything?"

"I've told you, I can't."

"But on your age, you still can do anything. I'm too old. And don't forget what you've done already. You defeated a thief, a monster and a machine on your own. Is that not impossible to do?"

"That's true, but…" Toadsworth could see this was going the way he wanted. Rich was breaking down his insecurity, building up some self-confidence in its place.

"Just do what you think you should do, and all will go as it must." With this final advice, Toadsworth walked away, leaving Rich behind.

* * *

Mario and Luigi saw Rich.

"Rich? What are you doing here? It's too dangerous. Go back to the ship." Mario told him, hearing Luigi softly complaining about why he couldn't return to the ship. Mario ignored it though.

"I'm not leaving." Rich stated as he walked up to them.

"Did Toadsworth finally convince you or something…? Because if he has, we will send you back to the ship anyway. This mission is too dangerous." Mario walked up to him, but he only remained on his place. Nearing him, Mario saw that Rich was a bit… frustrated and insure.

"Oh, that mission? Why are you doing it?" Rich spoke, an angry tone in his voice. Luigi quickly figured out that Rich didn't agree with the plan. "It's stupid. Luna broke the rules of this planet, and needs punishment for it. That mole thing agreed with us that if we waited, we would get a power star. Why are you trying to release that criminal?"

"Rich, do you even know what she's done and what the punishment is?" Mario asked, thinking that if he knew, he would understand.

"I DON'T CARE." Rich stated furious. "She's done something and gets the right punishment for it, whatever it is! And I suggest we just leave it be and return all to the ship! I'm not leaving earlier!"

"But Rich…" Luigi attempted, but his try was in futile.

"'But Rich, we're not leaving her behind!' Sure, but I won't let any more rules be broken from this day! If you want to rescue her, then you'd have to go through me!" With the final words, Rich ran up to Mario, his arm charged, and attempted to strike Mario, who jumped back just in time.

**MINI-BOSS: Rich, terribly misguided boy!**

Mario, shocked at what Rich just attempted, could only stand watching at Rich's next attack.

"Bro, don't you think we should run for it?" Luigi whispered, but Rich overheard his plan.

"Don't even think about it. I'll scream everyone awake if you flee in the wrong direction! I don't want you in trouble, so either return to the ship or return to the ship!" Rich commanded, giving them some time considering it.

"Rich… Why?" Mario asked, and Rich decided to answer.

"I'm sick of people breaking the rules, thinking their meant to be broken! Well, they aren't! And return now, or I'll strike again!"

"Bro, I think we have no choice but to fight him." Luigi said uneasy, as uneasy as when he was around ghosts. Mario thought for it about a moment, and decided there was just no other way around it but to silence Rich by knocking him out or covering his mouth.

"Time's up!" Rich said as he punched with his charged arm at the ground, flinging himself up in the air. In there, he charged his arm and tried to ground pound both brothers, but they got ahead of his plan and quickly jumped out of the way, each in opposite direction. Rich responded with a quick left fist to Mario, but Mario dodged and grabbed Rich's left arm. The plumber attempted to kick Rich from behind, but Rich hit the kick with his charged right arm. Mario was launched in the air, where he managed to restore his position after a few flips.

Luigi sneaked up to Rich, and without him mentioning, covered his mouth from behind. Rich furiously tried to free himself, having trouble with breathing, and stomped Luigi's left foot. Luigi softly screamed out of pain, while Rich ran away from the green plumber.

Realizing that Mario was still in the air, Rich looked above himself, and saw Mario's feet just before they hit him on the shoulders. Stumbling back and grabbing both of his shoulders, Rich cried out of pain. Deciding he better could keep a distance, he walked over to a rather large rock and charged his arm. While doing so, he dodged another attempt of Luigi to attack him, this time in the form of a kick. Once his arm was ready, Rich punched the big rock upwards, and charged his arm again. When the rock came down, he smashed it to Mario. Mario managed to dodge by jumping over it.

"It doesn't have to be this way!" Mario tried in an attempt to calm Rich down, but he got only more furious.

"As long you don't leave, it has to!" Rich mentioned both brothers were walking up to him again, he quickly ran away, dodging both of Mario's and Luigi's jumps. He prepared another arm, and when Mario tried to land on him again, Rich punched him away. Mario landed hard on the stone cliff, and grunted in pain while falling back to the ground.

Laying his attention back to Luigi, Rich tried to smash the floor again to smash himself up in order to ground pound the green hero. Luigi saw the attack coming, and jumped upwards when Rich landed. Luigi landed on Rich's head this time, causing Rich to fall on the ground. Trying to hold back all his pain, Rich tried climbing up, only to be smacked back to the ground again by… a fireball?

Both Luigi and Rich looked at Mario, who had now instead of blue overalls red ones, and his shirt had become white. His cap also had become white.

"When… did you… change clothes?" Rich asked, holding his arm on his back where now a red spot was forming due the fireball.

"Fire flower." Mario simply stated, catching Rich off guard because he didn't understand that. He was not familiar with things like a fire flower. Poorly enough for Rich, Luigi was, and Luigi realized that this was a perfect chance to capture Rich. Luigi looked around in the area, looking for a rope which he found. Rich tried to stand up again, but the pain became unbearable, and he fainted on the spot. Luigi took his arms and gagged them up.

"Okay, and what do with him now?" Luigi asked, lifting the unconscious body up.

"I think we better go back and shut him up in his room till this is over." And so, they finally returned like Rich wanted, and brought him to his room, closing the door. The fact that Luigi dropped him nonchalant and that Mario didn't say anything about that, might have hinted that their trust in the young boy was hurt, if it had not vanished.

* * *

**Ha! How many of you did suspect this happening? I think nobody did before I had that talk between Rich and Toadsworth. But hey, not all character development and cheers is for the best. Indeed, this was for the worst. I doubt Rich would have done it without beating Popple, Planetavor and that train from previous chapter.**

**Still have trouble with keeping the characters in character. I doubt I succeeded at this in this chapter… And I also think I should have added more details… A lot more… Though the fight was fun to write. … Though on rereading, even the fight seems to be missing something.**

**But yes, Rich cares about the rules much. More than I do (which is already a lot...). Though I doubt he would have fought if he knew what Luna had done and what the punishment was… But that's for future chapters. First let's rescue Luna and the power star.**

**Review if you have the time, and tell me whether the characters were themselves or not. It's really important I learn how to do that… **


	15. World 3: To the rescue of Luna

**Well folks, here's the next chapter! Don't know how many of you've been waiting for this… Probably somewhere near zero… No reviews for last chapter (though, there were reviews for others), thus I don't know whether or not you liked that twist… Oh well, enough of this chitchatting already, I've let you wait for this too long. So, without any further outdo, here's… THE DISCLAIMER!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mario or anything else of his series. Nintendo does. I own Rich, the solems and the story though.**

* * *

Mario and Luigi jumped off the ship again, trying for the second time to rescue Luna. Now hopefully, a certain boy wouldn't try to stop them again… They walked further into the many valleys this planet was rich, passing the passage where they had had their fight with Rich. Several holes would remind whoever passed, that traitors could be found even in the youngest of people… Not that Rich was that young, but still.

"Hey, Mario…" Luigi started as they set afoot in a new area, carefully to speak as softly as possible as needed to not be heard by guards. "I wonder how Rich found out what we were planning?"

"Lucky guess? I dunno, but we should focus now on Luna's rescue. We can deal later with the Rich problems we have." Mario also answered on a rather soft tone. They bypassed a mine, and a quick glare into it revealed there was nobody there. The moon light was quite helpful right now… Or rather, the light of all moons, so Luigi saw. Before the fight, they hadn't looked to the sky above, but now Luigi did for some reason… Afraid of danger that could come from above…

The brothers continued their path, checking often if they were on the right direction… Wait… How did they even know what was the right direction?

"Are you sure we're going the right way? Where is Luna anyway?" Luigi wondered, like a certain author.

"Remember the size of the king of the solems?" Mario started answering the questions. "He was quite huge, especially compared to other solems. I'm just following his footprints in this soil…" Mario pointed to the soft brown ground, where indeed was, along with other mole-like footprints, was a path of huge mole-like footprints. "Which will probably lead to the king, who knows where Luna is hold. And important as well, the power star."

And so they continued the long path of huge mole-like footprints. They passed more mines, as well several holes (which, Luigi figured, were probably houses of the solems). Time passed quickly, as there were no guards to be found. At least, guards that were awake. Because, despite how clichéd the joke is, all the guards were sleeping on their job. Unknown to our heroes, the cause of this was that none felt it was worth their night to stay up, because they weren't getting anything paid.

After some more time, they finally saw a huge castle, made completely of ground. They sped up, only to be confronted by… a sign?

"Please do not enter."

Because the path led to the castle, Mario and Luigi, of course, entered. Only to meet up with yet another sign.

"In case you entered, please take the route on the left. It's not a trap. Please do not enter the right way."

A quick glare to the left learned the brothers that it was a trap, in the form of a trap hole. And the way to the castle was on the right anyway, thus they entered that way. And thus they found another sign.

"In case you entered the forbidden routes of both signs that came before this one, then continue it to your right. Please do not enter the left route."

"Are they seriously thinking anyone with brains would follow up the instructions of the signs that came after the first one?" Luigi questioned to nobody particular. He and Mario again ignored the sign. And the sign that came after that one. And the one after that one. And the one that showed up after last one. And another. Yet another. This continued for a while till the bros. finally ended up at the gates of the castle.

Of course, that was what they had hoped. However, the person that made all the signs became smart, and the tenth sign forbade the way to the trap. Mario and Luigi blindly did the opposite of the advised, and ended up in the trap hole.

They were in trouble, they both realized as they hit the bottom of the hole painfully, and saw they were imprisoned…

* * *

Slowly but steadily, Rich's eyes opened again. The burning mark of failure still flaming on his arm, and would remind Rich of his defeat for a long time. It was now that other spots decided that the brain was open for strikes, resulting in his whole body hurting. Why had he failed? He had defeated much stronger, bigger, eviler and harder monsters than those two… men.

Heroes would never fail. Especially in children stories. But yet, in this child story, he failed. He was a failure, always was, always will be.

Rich grunted in pain, both physical as mental. A quick scan of the area learned him that he was in his accursed room of this crazy spaceship. If he had known what would happen, he would have stayed at home. The place where he belonged, the place where had grown up lonely, the place where he will die lonely. Forever in his shell of shyness… It was comfy anyways, instead of this bed that did not help to ignore the pain.

Rich tried to stand up, but found out that he was imprisoned to his own bed. In his own, temporary, room. The place where he would seek his retreat, was now the place that kept him away.

He needed to punch something. First, this bed for not being comfy. Then, once he was free, those two with mustaches for breaking the law, just because they thought they stood above it. After them, he would go for any self-inserting OC in existence for their stupidity. An adventure away from home is never fun.

Adventures… are just dangerous.

But he would not stop with them. No, the next one on his imaginary list was the author of this story for forcing him to be in this piece of ultimate ****.

Rich smiled at the possibility of his own author, that boss-obsessed human, hiding in fear beneath his bed, because his fictional character wanting to beat him up. Sometimes, one just needs a stupid fourth-wall-breaking joke. As if he would punch anyone anyway (Author: He had me worried…). Except those heroes…

* * *

Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi were still stuck in the trap. Or rather, their prison, as they had discovered not too long ago. The trap holes were conveniently placed above the prison of the planet. Though, Luna was not here; calls for her were ignored.

"Great. Now we are captured." Luigi complained, while Mario thought of a plan to escape. He still had his fire flower powers. Maybe…

"What are you doing, bro?" Luigi asked as he saw Mario throwing fire balls at the iron bars that kept them in their underground prison. Which was made of mostly stone, otherwise captured solems could escape with their drills easily out of this place.

"Trying to break us free, of course." And with one last fire ball, the bars finally melted, giving the brothers a chance to escape. Which they of course used. They checked if Luna was really not in the prison, and upon confirmation of this fact, exited the hall. Even in the prison, the guards were asleep. And in the castle too. It was like it was one big slumber party over there. And not of the girly versions, but the literal slumber version.

As Mario and Luigi walked through the halls of the castle, they saw the design of it. Not too royal as one would expect of a rich tyrant, but rather somber. The walls were typical stone walls you could see in castles, only adorned by a few candles here and there. The floor was covered by a red carpet, but it lacked any line on it, remaining plain. It was as if the castle itself was asleep, sleeping till the true ruler would appear and guide the planet to the awaking since the dark age it had been through.

The castle had not many halls, and was easy to navigate through. After some time, the plumbers stumbled on a big door. Bigger than all the doors they had ever seen, and that's saying a lot. We had experienced the door of the final castle of New Super Mario Bros wii, there's also the thousand year door, and of course the gates before the Bowser fights in Super Mario Galaxy 2… Which were gigantic… Okay fine, the door was not as big as all the doors they had ever seen, but it was still huge.

Anyway, they entered, and to their surprise, this room was the meaning of rich roomified. The walls were hung with a thousand jewels of all sorts, some even made of stones neither Mario or Luigi had ever seen before. The room had in the back a four poster, adored with small solems mining with their drill-like hands, on every single place possible. Statues of marble looked at the bath of jewels in the middle of the room. Only the floor was made of normal ground, but that was mostly covered by the red carpet, with on it all kinds of organic forms.

Remember the bath of jewels? Well, that's where the Solem King Carbo was residing, not mentioning the two brothers before they dared to set another step in the room. Whether the King could feel the resonating floor of their steps, or just mere unluckiness on the brothers part, who would tell? Fact was that Carbo and Mario looked each other in the eyes.

"You…" Carbo started, neither surprised or angry. "Chose to face me anyway? After my royal offer, an offer that I shouldn't need to make, you insist on the rescue of that chaotic star?"

"She's less chaotic than you are."

"Now you even dare to throw mud at my rule?"

"Never said that, but now that you mention it yourself..." That did it for Carbo. Rage shimmered through his eyes, replacing the neutral look from before. He jumped out of the jewel bath, and pushed a nearby button.

"Fools. You cannot possibly think you'll win this fight." The solem started.

"Heard that before." Mario responded. Luigi remained awkwardly silent as the room started to transform. The walls of jewels turned around, revealing the plain old stone wall from outside. The statues sunk into the ground, while the bed 'sunk' in the ceiling. The bath became closed by a ground floor, and Luigi had his reasons to believe the bath was moved away. Those reasons came in the form of mechanic sounds. Though they did not only mean the rolling away, but also the changing of the gravity in the room blow. The carpet was moved through the wall, to a place he would never see.

"I thought that you would. But you're out of your element. You're on another planet, in another castle, IN MY ROOM." The last three words waved like a tsunami through the castle, awakening every single guard. That was an achievement of gigantic sizes.

"Have any last words? For when I'm through with you, none will ever hear your voice again!"

"I have last words, but they will not be spoken for a long time!" Mario bravely told, but Luigi said not even a hesitation. Concerned about what had happened, Mario turned around, seeing Luigi imprisoned in a nicely conveniently hung cage. Luigi seemed to scream, but the cage was soundproof as no single sound was heard. This battle would be between Carbo and Mario, and not someone else…

**BOSS FIGHT:**

**Carbo, tyrant of the solems!**

* * *

We interrupt the serious stuff for some history. Be happy it isn't a commercial.

Rich tried to turn around in his bed, but no matter how hard he wiggled and shook in bed, he would not turn around. Why had fate decided to bring him here? Answers were not found in the near past, but maybe there was a hint in his childhood…

_Rich was born like most normal human boys in the Netherlands on earth. And with earth, I mean the earth with piranha plants, koopas, and toads in secluded places… This earth was not the same like the one of the author, and is called 'fake earth' by the author. Or 'Mario earth' or some kind of unoriginal name._

_But I'm trailing off. Rich grew up like most boys, no odd powers or something like that shown. Just a cute, little kid…_

_That was attached to his family too much. It was in kindergarten his history took another way than most. He would not seek to play with others, restricting to himself. And when one is found odd… No matter what they say, people do not accept those who aren't behaving normally. Yet those who change, are refused as well. You're normal out of yourself, or you'll be reminded of being different forever._

_In the case of little Rich, he got bullied. No matter what the teachers tried, there would always be someone to make absurd fun of him. Distrust for those he did not know grew, causing him to be even more secluded to others. Poor Rich was lucky the bullying existed only of scolding, seldom_ _physical pain. But that was enough to destroy his self-confidence. Conflicts should be avoided, so he thought, and thus every single way to it needed to be stopped before one could walk the path. He had his friends as well, but none stuck for too long, mostly due Rich secluding himself…_

_All was not lost though, as his parents sought a way for Rich to defend himself. And the bullying decreased over time…. But those are history, who'll be unspoken till future chapters…_

* * *

"Let's see what you can do!" The Solem King Carbo exclaimed, swinging his drill arm at Mario. Mario narrowly dodged away by jumping backwards. Carbo grinned as he swung again. Mario dodged the attack the same way, but bounced off against the door, allowing Carbo to catch Mario off guard. Planning to finish the battle already, Carbo moved with his drill nose towards Mario, but he recollected himself quickly enough, and ducked in order to avoid the brutal attack. The drill ended up in the door, allowing Mario to place himself where he was less cornered. While Carbo tried to get his nose out of the wall, Mario sneaked up from behind and launched a punch on Carbo.

Carbo reacted on this with freeing his nose, and swinging his left arm at Mario, hitting him. His fire flower power immediately disappeared, which could be seen through his clothes getting their normal color back.

"Only a punch? I had expected better of you!" Carbo mocked, swinging his drill arm at Mario again.

"It's always better than getting your nose into something where it shouldn't be." Mario returned, dodging the swing by a normal jump. Following onto this, Mario tried to counter by jumping on Carbo, who, mostly by surprise, looked up. Thanks to Nintendo logic, Mario landed exactly on the drill nose, causing him to jump up out of pain. When he landed on the floor, he grabbed his hit feet, as if that would lessen the damage.

Carbo grunted, seeing this situation as a perfect way to cause damage on Mario. He used his drills, through not for attacking Mario. Instead, he drilled through the ground. Mario could only watch as smoke appeared, blocking his view on Carbo. When it vanished, the hole Carbo created was filled up already. Following him through the hole was impossible. Mario would need to use his instincts to figure out where and when Carbo would strike.

Shockwaves. On the filled up hole, a shockwave appeared, spreading itself through the room. Mario jumped up to dodge the electric like wave, only to see another made near the hole. Mario dodged that with ease as well, but another came. This one was even farther from the hole, the centers of the waves slowly moving to Mario. Which he realized too as he dodged a few more waves. Maybe…

When another was made, Mario jumped over the center (and the shockwave). What he had predicted, was true: Carbo was creating them while digging (or that is what Mario thought) through the ground. The proof of this was when Carbo drilled through the center of the last shockwave. He was surprised that he hadn't hit Mario, nor that he saw him. Mario's location was revealed quickly as Mario punched Carbo a few more times on his back.

Carbo grunted in pain, swinging his drill arm to get rid of that pest Mario. Mario saw it coming yhis time, and dodged.

"You're smarter than you look… But are you smart enough to avoid THIS?" Carbo drilled through the ground again, causing another shockwave. This time though, Carbo immediately reappeared nearby, still drilling while hanging in the air for some time, then immediately drilling again through the ground as he landed, moving towards the red plumber. He repeated the process, shockwaves appearing every time he came up and when he came down. Mario tried to run away, but with each drill, Carbo came closer. The shockwaves weren't helping, forcing Mario to jump and slowing him down. Carbo finally hit Mario as he came up again, causing Mario to scream in agony. And getting shocked due the shockwave.

Mario landed on the floor, looking quite beaten up. Carbo grinned again, believing the fight was as good as over. He walked over to the plumber, arm ready to swing Mario to dead. Just as he would hit, Mario rolled out of the way. He had to do something quickly, or else the journey would end. He stood up with trouble.

"Ready for the next round?" Carbo said evilly as he again drilled through the ground, and repeating previous attack pattern. Mario tried to run away, but it was no use. Carbo was just about to hit Mario, which would end the fight, causing Carbo's mad rule of terror to continue, when Mario ducked away. Carbo flew into a wall, again his nose being stung into the wall. Mario used this opportunity to attack Carbo, causing Carbo to grunt in pain. He freed himself, and swung his arm at Mario, who dodged.

A cracking sound. Both Carbo and Mario were surprised, and tried to find the source as it continued to crack. They quickly found out it was the wall Carbo was stuck in, and just as both looked at it, it completely broke down, revealing a secret room… With an oversized drill in it. A spin drill, Mario recognized.

"Who put that room there!" Carbo shouted out, and was answered by a mythical voice…

"Upon the time a king swims in stones, the drill will be revealed in a battle with a plumber… That's how the prophecy went, and thus we, solems of the second generation, decided to put this room here with the spin drill. Plumber, whatever you are, good luck." And so finished the voice on the radio that was put near the spin drill.

"Seriously, your ancestors foretold this fight?" Mario asked to Carbo, dumbstruck.

"I'm just as dumbstruck as you are." Carbo replied. The fight was stopped for this ridiculous plot twist, if it could even be called that. "This is the most idiotic prophecy I've ever heard…"

"Compared to what the author is planning for Da Rock, this is normal stuff. Ever heard of a common rock being the chosen one to save life on a planet?" Mario responded, acting OoC, just like Carbo now did.

"… Are you advertising for a story that's not even created yet and has absolutely nothing to do with this story?" Carbo asked, still with a perplexed face.

"Maybe. But I think we should continue with our fight…"

"Agreed." And thus, the battle continued. The lost rage of Carbo burned again in his eyes, startling Mario by the return of it. Carbo used the moment to swing both of his arms at Mario, but Mario regained his sense and made a quick dash for the drill and picking it up and holding it above his head. He walked back into the main battle field, and tried to see if the drill would still function like it always did.

Carbo looked over at Mario spinning and drilling through the ground. His enemy had the same battle options like him now. If he wasn't already nearly beaten, he would've said that the battle was becoming fun… But this wasn't fun anymore.

Mario landed on the soil on the other side. He had thought that the ground beneath them was only ground; not a secret room with the gravity on what should be the ceiling; the ground he was standing on. Could he use this to his advantage? Maybe this was Carbo's weak point and if he hit that, he would cause MASSIVE DAMAGE.

Carbo came out of the floor. "Getting tired?" He asked as he swung his arm again at Mario, who dodged by jumping back.

"Why asking? Are you tired?" Mario responded as he drilled into the ground again, arriving in the previous room.

"As if I would get tired from a simple fight!" Carbo shouted after him, moving over to where Mario was in the other room, using his senses to figure that out.

Mario saw Carbo nearing him, despite him being underground, if that's the correct term for this. Shockwaves appeared where Carbo set a step; the center revealing Carbo's location. He jumped over the shockwaves, waiting for Carbo to stand beneath him. This attack should end the fight, whether with Carbo losing, or Mario…

Just as Carbo was directly beneath Mario and Mario directly beneath Carbo, they both drilled through the floor. Carbo's drills met Mario's drill. All spun harder and harder, trying to get through the other. The end was now spinning around whether Carbo's drills were harder and stronger, or Mario's one was. It would be a few moments now, as both Carbo's and Mario's showed cracks into them.

A big bang. With that started the universe, and with that ended this fight. Luigi, who had watched the fight from his rather small prison, saw Carbo coming up, and landing on the floor. Was it true? Had Carbo won the fight? Had Mario lost? Was the adventure… over?

And then suddenly, Carbo fell down. Luigi could now clearly see that Carbo's drills were utterly destroyed. Carbo remained lifelessly on the ground, till he started to shine a white glow. It became brighter and brighter, till Carbo suddenly vanished in smoke. Just as Mario drilled through the ground, heavy wounded, but not dead.

Victorious over the king, Mario rescued his brother from the small cage. As if it could sense when someone won, the door slowly opened, showing all guards looking at them. Both brothers took on a fighting stance, but were surprised by the many cheers and applause they got from them.

"Can someone tell me why you're cheering?" Luigi asked to the guards.

"Why wouldn't we be? Carbo is gone forever! He was a terrible king, even to us guards." They then showed both a knocked out Luna and the power star. "We figured out that you might want those two. We have no clue why that luma is unconscious, in case you're wondering."

YOU GOT A POWER STAR!

Oh, and you got Luna too. BUT YOU GOT A POWER STAR!

"Wait, how did you know that we would win?" Mario asked, finding it rather odd that the guards had brought in Luna and the power star. What kind of result would it have if Carbo showed up instead of the plumbers?

"Carbo never fought with anyone before. We're rather surprised that the fight took this long. Now go quickly, we'll alarm the planet of the death of Carbo." And so the brothers did. They left the planet, and the Faceship drove off towards new horizons… With Rich still tied up.

* * *

**FINALLY! This chapter is done! Yes! I'm terribly sorry for taking this long, but I was incredibly busy and lazy…**

**By the way, I'm not sure if I'll write previous mentioned story 'Da Rock' or another story. You need to answer a poll for that on my profile…**

**Now, please review. It might make me less lazy for writing the next chapter… Oh yes, before I forget, I'll be gone on a vacation for a week, starting Friday. So don't expect me to respond to anything during that week. **

**See you till next time!  
**


	16. The big reveal

**Just read the story...**

* * *

It was silent in the room. What room you ask? Well… one could call it the author's room I guess. It's the place where he writes all those _wonderful, extraordinary, super-exciting and best stories since ever._ Yeah, I got paid twenty bucks for saying that. The truth is quite the opposite.

It was rare anyone but the author ever walked into this very room. But today, a young boy ensnared on a chair jumped inside with much trouble.

"Puff… cough… Finally…" The boy said. The room was not what he expected. After one year of no updates, he expected the room to be dusty. The opposite was true: the room was very clean. That meant the room was still used. But if it wasn't for SMG 3?

"Rich! You can't enter that room!" Both Mario and Luigi entered as well. "This is the author's room! Do you have any idea what happens if he finds you here?"

"I don't know, but really, any kind of attention would be good AFTER ONE YEAR OF REMAINING STUCK ON A CHAIR! Do you know how difficult it was to go to the toilet?!" Rich complained, not planning on leaving soon. "Can you please free me?"

"Fine." Within a few moments, Rich was free once more.

"Much better. Now, on what does the author work?" Rich wondered aloud, searching through a book case. He found several scripts, including 'Daring Truths', 'Changed Purpose', 'Once upon a coward', and various small ideas. Something about a dream, something else about a fangirl… Ah, there it was.

"What are you doing?" Luigi asked Rich as the latter picked out a book.

"Looking through SMG3's script. I want to know what happens next, as I've waited too long already for result."

"You can't just do that!" Mario shouted alarming. "You don't want to know what the author will do to you!"

"I don't care. It's not forbidden to read your own future. Care to join?" Rich asked, opening the book of SMG 3 and showing it to bros.

"No, we don't." Both Luigi and Mario answered at the same time.

"Not even if I mention that Peach and Daisy were meant to be rescued rather soon?" Now they got interested. They walked over and the three of them continued to study the book of their future. Rich started with reading aloud.

"Okay, so after that Mole King, you two would face the koopalings again. I in the meantime, would need to go the toilet, forcing several toads to take me out of the starship. Then a random hammer bro appears…"

Mario added something to that: "No, not a random one. That hammer bro. from Stardock announced it would return at some point. As I can read here, he was supposed to be Kamek's way of dealing with us."

"In which he nearly succeeds, apparently. Look: as soon as you returned from the fight, you would have been knocked out by him. Then I come in and rescue you."

"Totally not Gary Stueish," Luigi remarked.

"After that, we go to the next world, I gain upgrades for my ability, which I trained under some odd fights sports to protect myself from bullies. … Seems legit. Then Bowser comes up with his own 'secret partner' to show Kamek how it's done and uses Tatanga to protect Daisy."

"So he has a role after all in this story!" Mario said that this time.

"Tatanga was planning on backstabbing him, though. Peach would have been protected by the koopalings, who used some kind of planet shooting weapon. Then Peach and Daisy would have an adventure on a girls-only world, while I rethink about my reasons for coming here. Which is that it was rumored that the Star Festival would ensure you would find your soul mate. A rumor… that isn't true?!"

"We haven't heard of it." Mario and Luigi answered to Rich's question.

"Really, that prize I won is really suspicious. I mean, those tour guides were freaking emotionless the entire time. As if they were hypnotized or something. Better even, my entire family and school seemed to be brainwashed when I won."

"Anyways, after that, Bowser would make some fake copies of himself during the final battle. Each hero, including the princesses, get to fight one, then I, Mario, fight Bowser, defeat him, he isn't fully defeated, I defeat him again, end of story."

"Totally original… wait, what?" Rich looked at the end of SMG3's script. "Why does that last sentence say that the warp pipe back to earth was destroyed?!"

"Better even, what's up with those last lines?" Luigi pointed at the very bottom of the paper. "Four mysterious characters discuss that their plan is succeeding and that Rich is spreading distortion?"

Rich turned the last paper around, discovering something more. "Is this not the secret chapter?" He looked at it again, not believing the secret chapter was just at the very end of the book. "It seems to be called chapter 8 ½ . According to this, I was cursed after a short fight with one of those mysterious characters to not be able to teleport again?!"

"That explains the torpelet 2 problem." The trio turned around, seeing E. Gadd, Daisy, Peach and even Bowser and the koopalings walk into the room.

"What are you doing here?!" Luigi asked, nearly shouted, at the group.

"Same thing you're doing. Looking at what the author had planned for us." Bowser simply answered. "Now let us see what that sequel with that Golden Pipe contains."

Despite the oddity of the whole situation, Rich simply picked up the book with the title 'Quest for the Golden Pipe', and opened it. Everyone stared in it.

"I can already see this is a generic adventure story. There's an ancient artifact that brings a person to the place they desire most, the Golden Pipe." Ludwig analyzed.

"Me," Rich started, "Wario and a band of thieves seek it. But first I manage to find a place to stay during my… ONE YEAR IMPRISONEMENT IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM?!"

The other characters ignored Rich's shouting. Luigi continued reading. "At the bright side of it, you would have found your future girlfriend during this story."

Rich suddenly became more happy with his future situation.

"Sorry if I interrupt you, but I think I have as much right as you have to read my future." All the characters turned out, spotting a young girl of fifteen at the door. She walked in. "I'm that future girlfriend. I don't have a name yet, the author wasn't that far yet apparently."

"According to this script, you two would have met in a desert city. Due the hallucinations, only viewable by one person, the city demands people to travel in two. You both want to go in and plan on splitting up to get around that rule. However, after you discover the rumors about the desert are true, you stay together. You discuss your situation, where it's hinted at that the girlfriend is stuck in the same situation." Peach told the rest.

"I'm considered a failure though, if I remember that creature's words correctly…" The girlfriend thought aloud.

"After that, Rich defeats the band of thieves and gathers the remaining artifacts needed. He goes towards the Golden Pipe, Wario is first and defeats him. Then it's revealed the Golden Pipe is sentient. The place of desire is heaven, as a plot twist. Rich and Wario work together and defeat it."

"That's the whole premise of the Quest of the Golden Pipe?!" Rich asked aloud. "Seriously, I'm being kept here for that!?"

"No, after that comes Shadows of Failure." Daisy had the next book already and had started reading it. "You end up in an alternate dimension where Mario is killed by a certain Shadow Queen or something like that. You are forced to team up with Bowser, who has lost most of his remaining children during the following war. Me and Luigi join too after some time. There's also these characters from Castle Bleck or something like that…"

"Count Bleck and his minions?!" Mario, Peach, Luigi and Bowser shouted aloud. "What were they doing there?!"

"Well, they wanted to free Peach because the Dark Prophecy requires a fair maiden and a beast to marry. Peach was corrupted and no longer 'fair'. We all infiltrate the Shadow Queen's castle, where Rich finds himself from that reality. He figures out that he is in the Mushroom Kingdom not by mere luck, but by fate. Then the Shadow Queen is defeated, then Count Bleck is convinced to stop the Dark Prophecy before he makes it happen and then Rich fights Dimentio, who was the one who sent Rich towards the alternate reality."

"Dimentio again? Don't the authors ever get tired of him?" Mario asked towards the others.

"Apparently not." Peach answered Mario's question.

"Then we have Fungus Quest." Rich was now the first one to have grabbed the book. "Everything is then revealed about all previous stories. I was not sent to the Mushroom Kingdom by a mere lottery; I was chosen because I lack a 'Mushroom Kingdom gen', whatever that is. Without that, you'll cause distortion in this realm, which the main villains are after. They have kidnapped several ones before me, including my apparently future girlfriend. However, they always had the gen, resulting in failure. The reason why they took so long with waiting with me, is because I needed to cause enough distortion. The true mastermind increased my distortion, but that took the year."

Mario looked into Fungus Quest. "After defeating the main villains, we go up to Mt. Startan, wherever that is. Bowser, having joined us during the story, backstabs us as he was working together with the villains. However, he gets backstabbed after that. They were only using him to lead Rich to the mountain, where his distortion causes the main villain to be freed. Rich is possessed and after we go through an underworld, we free him and defeat the main villain once and for all. Rich finally returns home and so does his future girlfriend."

The characters stared each other. This is what the author had planned? Yeah right, they were going to retire from this story.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING IN MY ROOM?!" Boss-defeater451 demanded to know as he walked into it.

"Reading your failure story. We won't join anymore."

Boss-defeater451 simply shrugged it off. "Fine, I wasn't planning on continuing it anymore. Feel free, no wait, forced to leave my room. NOW."

The characters quickly did so, not wanting to meet the author's revenge. Once they all left, the author turned towards the screen and said: "Yes, SMG 3 is now finished. I didn't want to leave you with no answers, so I allowed the characters a sneak peak. Hopefully, you have some better stories to read than this one. It might have been my first one, but I'm not proud of it. I started on it while I didn't think straight about plots and wanted a difficult one for the sake of having one. So… goodbye, unless you have the unnecessary need to read my other stories."

With a clap of his hands, the author officially completed the story.


End file.
